
Pass E 54-0 

Book . C 15 H ^ 



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AN ORATION 



ON TIIK 



LIFE, CIIAllACTEll AND SERVICES -^^^i" 



or 



JOHN CALDAVELL CALHOUN: 



UELIVEKEU 



ON THE 21sT NOV., 1850, IN CHARLESTON, S. C, 



AT THE REQUEST OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 



J. n. HAMMOND. 



CHARLESTON, S. C: 

STEAM POWER-PRESS OF WALKER A JAMES. 

Noa. ini «nd 103 Etft-Biyi 

1850 



OOKUESPOXDENCE. 



Charleston, Ni.v. 23ti, 1850. 
Hon. James H. Hammond. 

Dear Sir: — As a special commitlco in behalf (if the City Council of Charleston, 
we have the honor to enclose you a copy of the followinjj resolutions, which were 
unanimously adopted at a nieetitit,' of the City Council, held on the 23d in^t., to 
wit : 

"ResolveJ, That the City Council of Charleston having been highly gratified at 
the very able culogiuni, delivered on the 21st inst., by the Hon. James H. 
Hammond, upon the life, character, and services, of the late Hon. John C. Cai.hoin, 
hereby tender this expression of their thanks for tho same, and respectfully request 
a copy thereof, for publication. 

JieMlval, That a committee on behalf of Council, be ajipointed, to carry out the 
objects of the above resolution." 

Earnestly hoping for your concurrence with this request of the City Council, and 
with assurances of the highest regard, 
We have the honor to be, 
Dear Sir, 

Very Rcspecthilly, 

Your obd't si.>rv'ts, 

WM. KIRKWOOD. 



W. ALSTON U A\NE A Cotmnittee. 
JA.ME.-5 M. EASON. ) 



Charleston Hotel, Nov. 23d, 18")0. 
Gentlemen: — I return my sincere thanks, through you to the City Council for 
the kind expression of their satisfaction with my oration, delivered on the 2l8t 
inst., at their request. I am, perhaps, better aware than they are of its numerous 
defects. But, such as it is, I surrender to their disposal, in the hope that they, and 
the public will view it as not pretending to be anything more than imperfect tribute 
to truth and to Mr. Calhoun. 

I have the honor to be. 

Most Respectfully, 

Your obd'l. serv't., 

J H HAMMOND. 
Mti>.<<r!«. Win. KirkwiMxl, \V. .\. Ilayiic, Jnine^ M. Kuimiii. 



ORATION. 



Faith is aij instinct of the Iniman lieai-t. Its strong- 
est, its purest and its noblest instinct — the parent 
of love and of hope. In all ages and every where, 
mankind have acknowledged, adored and i)ut their 
trust in the gr^at Creator and Iluler of the Uni- 
verse. And descending from the in\dsi]jle and infinite, 
to the \isible and finite, they have entertained the same 
sentiments, differing only, in degree, for those of their 
own species, who have received from heaven an extra- 
ordinary endowment of intellect and \drtue. The An- 
cient Heathen deified them. By the early Christians 
they were enrolled among the Saints. It is a shallow 
and a base j)hilosophy which can see superstition only, 
in such customs, and tails to recognize the workings of 
a profound veneration for the attributes of God, as 
manifested through his favorite Creations. A better 
knowledge of the bounds which separate the natural 
from the supernatural, has taught us in our day to limit 
our homage, Ijut still it is a deep and pure wisdom 
which counsels us to submit ourselves, in no grudging 
spiiit, to the guidance of those great Minds that have 
been appointed to shed light and truth uj)on the world. 

To the honor and praise of South-Carolina it may 1)0 
said that she has always recognized lier proj)hets, and 
believed their inspiration. She has aided and sustain- 
ed them in the ])erformance of their missions, with a 



6 ORATION ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND 

warm and steady confidence, and slie lias been faitliful 
to their memory. Her loyal reverance for real great- 
ness lias ever been a deep, — I might say a religious sen- 
timent, — mitinged with superstition, but as profound 
as it is magnanimous and just. 

For no one of her many noble sons has Providence 
permitted her to e™ce for so long a period her admi- 
ration, her affection and her confidence : for no one has 
she herself endured such trials : no one has she ever 
consigned to his last resting place in her bereaved bo- 
som amid such deep and universal grief as him whose 
life and ser^dces we have assembled this day to com- 
memorate. For more than forty years the name of 
Calhoun has never been pronounced in South-Carolina 
without awakening a sensation. For nearly the same 
period it has been equally familiar and fraught with as 
deep an interest to every citizen of this wide-sjDread 
Union. Few of us here present cannot remember the 
era when we heard it first. We have grown up from 
childhood under its mighty influence, and we feel that 
a spell was broken, a tie of life was sundered forever 
when it ceased to be a living sound. 

The Man is now no more. He has closed his career 
with us, to begin another in a better world. But what 
he did and what he said while here, still live, and will 
live forever in their consequences ; — as immortal as the 
Spirit which has returned to God. How he performed 
his part on earth it is ours now to consider. And dry- 
ing our unavailing tears, and burying, for the moment, 
in the deepest recesses of our bosoms, the love and rev- 
erence we bore him, it is our duty to analyse his life 
with the strict impartiality of a distant posterity; and 
to bring the thouo^hts and actions he left behind him 



SERVICES OF JOHN C. OALIIOUN. 7 

to the great staiularcl of eternal Truth, that av(^ may 
render conipk^te justice to him, and gather for our^;elves 
and our chihlren the full measure of the lessons which 
he tauficht. The livino: man scorned fulsome adulation : 
and liis living S})irit, if permitted to hover over us 
now, and to liear our voices and perceive the i)ulsation3 
of our hearts, will accept no oil'ering that cannot ]»ear 
the scrutiny of Time and the pure test of Truth. 

Mr. Caliioux was horn in the ])ackwoods of South- 
Carolina, near the close of the Revolutionary War. 
His early nurture was in the wilderness, and during 
the heroic age of the Repulilic. In youth he imhibed 
but a scant portion of the lore of books, but his con- 
vei*se with the volume of Nature was unlimited : and 
in the iield and forest, by the stream and by the fire- 
side, he was in constant intercourse with those rough 
but high-strung men, who had challenged o})})ression 
at its first step, and were fresh from the battles in 
which they had won their lil^erties ^^'itll their swords. 
His father, too, was a wise and strong man. For thirty 
years in the councils of the State, he was as familiar 
with the strifes of j)olitics, as of arms. In his rude 
way he penetrated to fundamentals : discovered that 
the true foundation of government is the welfare of 
the governed ; denounced its excessive action ; and 
opposed the constitution of the Union because it i)laced 
the power of laying taxes in the hands of those who 
did not pay them. Amid such men and sucli scenes, 
there was little opportunity for what is commonly call- 
ed education for the young Calhoun. But it may be 
doubted whether, having acquired the use of letters 
and figures, and been thus furnished with the two great 
keys of knowledge, there could have liccii a much bet- 



8 OEATIOlSr ON THE LIFE, CHAEACTEE AISTD 

ter training for tLe future Statesman. Pericles and 
Alexander were, perhaps, tauglit but little more by 
Anaxagoras and Aristotle, than Calhoue" learned from 
Ms few books, from nature and sucL. men. In this 
School he learned to think, which is a vast achieve- 
ment. And he was furnished with high and noble 
themes for thought, by those whose partial knowledge 
of facts led them to discuss chiefly essential principles, 
to eliminate fundamental truths, and to build on them 
those lofty theories to which the exigencies of the times 
gave birth. And thus he was taught, not only the sum 
and substance of elementary education, but was imbued 
with that practical philosophy, according to which 
human affairs are in the main conducted. It is true 
that thousands have received the same lessons and pro- 
fited nothing. But we know that seed sown by the 
wayside and among stones and thorns, is gathered by 
the birds or is withered or choked up ; and it is only 
when it falls on good ground that it springs up and 
produces fifty and an hundred fold. It is idle to deny 
the natural diversity of human intellects. It was due, 
after all, to the rich soil of Calhoun's mind that these 
noble seed took root, and bore abundantly such pre- 
cious fruit. 

It was not until he had passed his eighteenth year 
that he seriously embarked in the pursuit of Scholastic 
learning, and the event proved — as perhaps it would in 
most cases — that no time had been really lost. Per- 
haps it seldom happens that the bud of the mind is 
sufiiciently matured before this age, to expand natural- 
ly and absorb with benefit the direct rays of knowl- 
edge, so bright, so piercing and so stimulating. The 
tender petals eagerly opened at too early a period, 



SERVICES OF JOim C. CALHOUN. 9 

often Avitlier and die nnder tlie overpowering liirlit. 
At eighteen Mr. Caliioux went to tlic Aeadeniy : at 
twenty to College: at twenty-two he gi-achiated at 
Yale: at twenty-five he was admitted to the Bar: at 
twenty-siix he was elected to the Legislatnre : at twen- 
ty-eight to Congress. Tims, though he a])i)ai-ently 
started late, he nevertheless arrived at the goal far in 
advance of most of those who reach it. But when he 
went to the Academy he did not dream over hooks, 
any more than he did afterwards over the aftairs of life. 
He had learned before, what many never learn — 
to think : and to think closely — to the purpose — search- 
ing for the princii)le. Having acquired this inighty 
power — for it is a power, and the greatest of all — when 
he did start in his career, he strode onward like a con- 
queror. Difheulties were mere exercises. Yallies I'ose 
in his path and mountains sunk down to a level. First 
at School : fii'st at Collecfe : he rose at once to the front 
rank at the Bar and in the Legislature : and was as- 
signed a most distinguished position the moment he 
took his seat in Congress. His course was a stream of 
light. Men of all classes recognized its iDrilliancy, and 
hailed him, not as a meteor, l3ut as a new star risen in 
the heavens, which had floated without effort into its 
appointed orl)it, and promised long to shed the bright- 
est and most beneficent beams upon the world. 

What, we may properly ask, was the secret of this 
rajjid and wonderful success ? How was it that tliis 
y( )ung man, coming but a few years before from the 
wihlerness, late in youth, without knowledge of l)ooks, 
unknown himself, and destitute of jxiwei-ful friends, 
should in so short a time, not only win his way into the 
Great Council of the Confederac>-, l)ut be at once con- 



10 ORATION ON THE LIFE, CIIAEACTER AND 

ceded a place among tlie first, and draw to himself tlie 
admiration and tlie hopes of a people ? 

" What should it be that tlius their faith could bind 1 
The power of Thought — the magic of the Mind !" 

Mr. Calhoun first took his seat in Congress at the 
commencement of the Session of 1811. From that pe- 
riod may be dated his career as a statesman. That 
career may be properly divided into several epochs, 
each of which are memorable in the history of our 
comitry, and were made memorable in no small degree 
by the parts Avhicli he performed. The fii'st embraces 
his services in the House of Representatives. The 
grea-t question of the Session of 1811-12, was that of 
war with England. All Europe was then, and had 
been for twenty years in arms, and that mighty con- 
flict which terminated not long after in the overthrow 
of Napoleon, and the estal^lishment of the Holy Alli- 
ance, was at its height. France and England were 
the two leading belligerents, and both of them, in ut- 
ter disregard of neutral rights, had perpetrated unex- 
ampled outrages upon us. We had in vain resorted to 
embargoes and non-importation acts, and at length it 
became indispensably necessary to our maintaining any 
position among nations, that v^e should declare war 
against one or both of these powers. The direct pe- 
cuniary interests of the South had been but slightly 
affected by these outrages. She had but little com- 
merce to be plundered — few seamen to be im23ressed. 
Her great interest involved — and that she felt in every 
fibre — was the honor of our common country. To 
vindicate that she went for war, and went for it al- 
most unanimously. South-Carolina took the lead. Her 
illustrious Representatives Lowndes, Cheves, Williams 



SERVICR"^ OF .loIIX (". CALHOUN. 1 1 

and Calhoux, were the leaders of all t]i<»t' iinportjint 
Coiiiinittees, whose ])ro\'iiK-e it is to ])r()iK>sr war, and 
marslial the i-esoiirces for earryiiii^' it <»ii. And iioMy 
and irlorionslv did tliev all iKM'forni their duty. Mr. 
Calhoun, placed second on the C'onunittce <»f Foreii^n 
Relations, soon l)ecanie its head by the retirement of 
the rhainnan, and hefore the close of his first Session, 
lie reported and carried throUL^h the House, a hill <le- 
clarinij: war airainst Great l^ritain ; and, throuichout the 
momentous conflict, undaunted in courasj^e and infinite 
in resources, he stood forth the leadiiii,^ champion of 
every measure for its vio;orous i)rosecution. Young as 
he Mas, he shrunk from no opponent in that Congress, 
never hefore or since equalled tor its a.ssend)lage of ta- 
lent. He surrendered nothing and shunned no resjnjn- 
sibility. In the darkest and most ])erilous hour of the 
war, Avhen Na])oleon ha.l fallen, and England was free 
to turn the whole of her armament on us ; when the 
Eastern States, not content with denouncing the war 
through their presses, and from their i)latforms and 
their puli)its, had assailed in every form the credit of 
the Government : had paralyzed all the financial ope- 
rations of the c<)untry, and caused a general suspension 
of the Southern Banks: had given valua]>le "aid and 
comfoi-t to the enemy" l>y loans oi' sj)ecie, and wen* 
consj)iring to withdraw from the Confederacy and make 
peace for themselves: — in that desi)onding hour, when 
all seemed hjst, he did not falter for an instant. " The 
great cause" h<; said " will never be yielded— no, never ! 
never I T hear the future audibly announced in the 
past, — in the s))lendid victories over the (MU-rriere, the 
Java, and the Maced(.nian. Opinion is p(.wer. Tlie 
charm of liritish naval invincibility i- irone." 



12 OEATION OlSr THE LIEE, CHAEACTER AND 

Mr. Calhoun's course tlirona'liout tlie war can never 
fail of tlie admiration and applause of future times ; 
and that war was a turning point in the history of the 
world. It established a competitor with England for 
the trident of the ocean, whose triumph is inevitable. 
And just and necessary as it was, and glorious as its 
result, it gave rise in the end to questions in this coun- 
try, which no human sagacity could have anticipated, 
whose solution, yet in the womb of time, may be of 
far greater import than the dominion of the seas. 

Mr. Calhoun entered Congress as a member of the 
Kepublican -Party, as distinguished from the Federal, 
and throughout his service in the House, acted with it 
in the main. But he- gave many and early proofs that 
his was a temperament w^hich could never " give up to 
party what was meant for mankind." Following his 
illustrious Colleague, — who yet survives to our love and 
veneration, with his powerful intellect unimpaired, and 
his devotion to his native sod. more ardent and self- 
sacriiicing, if possible, than ever, — he warmly advo- 
cated a large addition to the navy, at an early 23eriod 
of warlike preparations, and ever after consistently and 
earnestly sustained that most important arm of defence 
and supporter of t!ie State. The Republican. Party, 
under Mr. Jefferson, had with a narrow policy con- 
demned the navy. But amj^hibious man never attains 
half his national greatness, until his domain on the 
water equals that upon the land — until the terror of 
his prowess makes his home upon the deep as secure 
as on the mountains, and the products of his industry 
float undisturbed on every tide. 

At this early period also, Mr. Calhoun took his 
stand against the Restrictive System, which had been 



SERVICES OF JOITN 0. CALHOUN. 13 

SO erreat a favourite with Mr. Jeti'ci-soii and Mr. Maili- 
soil, as a substitute for war. He deiiounceil it its un- 
sound in ]K)licy, and Avliolly unsuited to the ijcuius t>f 
our })e()ple ; and lie op})()sed it vigorously, until it fell 
beneath his Idows. But it may ^vell be questioned, 
whether at that time his opposition was at all eidiii^h- 
teued by those great ])rineii)les of Free Trade, then so 
little known, which it was the glory of his later life, to 
develope and sustain under such trying circumstances. 
He theii opposed the Restrictive System as a war mea- 
sure, and demonstrated that it was not only inetlicient, 
l)ut injurious. Neither then, nor when the import du- 
ties were re-adjusted at the close of the war, did he 
appear to have ])erceived the dangers which lurked 
under the protection which this system gave to manu- 
factures, nor those which followed such jH-otection Avhen 
specifically given by the direct action of the Govern- 
ment. For in the debate in 1814, while Mr. Webster, 
now the great champion of protection, declared '' he 
was an enemy to rearing manufactures, or any other 
interest in a hot l)ed, and never wished to see a Shef- 
field or a Birmingham in this country." Mr. Caliioux 
said"a.s to the manufacturing interest, in regard to 
which some fear has been expressed, the resolution vo- 
ted by the House yesterday was a strong pledge that 
it would not sutler manufactures to be unprotected in 
case of a repeal of the Restrictive System. He hojM'd 
that at all times, and under every ])olicy, they would 
be protected with due care." And, in IS IT), he advo- 
cated without any note of caution, the bill intrixluci'd 
by another distinguished Carolinian, long since snatch- 
ed from us by a ])reinature death, but whose genius 
and vii-tues — whose lofty chara«t cr and inestimulde 



14 ORATION ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND 

services can never be forgotten; a bill which distinctly 
recognized the protective principle, and introduced 
perhaps its most oppressive feature. The truth is that 
at that day political economy was in its infancy. Free 
Trade was most commonly understood to mean merely 
the freedom of the seas. The most sagacious intellects 
of our country— Mr. Webster perhaps excepted, had 
apparently no apprehensions of the evils of the false 
theory of protection as applied to us ; and that abom- 
inable system, since called " the American," it had en- 
tered into no man's imagination to conceive. Mr. 
Calhoun, at a later period, so far in advance of his 
age, was at that epoch, the embodiment of the spirit 
of the times, and among its most able and effective 
expounders. 

At the crisis of the war, when the credit of the go- 
vernment was prostrate, an United States Bank was 
proposed by the administration, and supported by the 
Republican Party. This Mr. Calhoun opposed and 
defeated ; though in a modified form, it would ihially 
have passed the House, but for the casting vote of Mr. 
Cheves. It was, however, on account of the extraordi- 
nary character of the proposed Bank, that Mr. Cal- 
houn resisted it, and not apparently from any doubt 
of the policy or constitutionality of a Bank chartered 
by Congress. In fact, he had himself previously pro- 
posed a Bank to be established in the District of Co- 
lumbia, with the express view of getting rid of cer- 
tain constitutional scruples felt by others ; and he was 
the responsible author of the Bank of 1816, whose 
powerful efforts to prolong its own existence, so fiercely 
agitated the whole union twenty years later, and ended 
in consequences so disastrous not only to its own stock- 



SERVICES OF JOHN C. CALHOrN. IT) 

holdei*s, hut to the country. From Mr. C'ai.iku'n's suli- 
sequent declarations, it is certain tliat in liis niaturest 
years, he reganU'd tlie whole Hankinic system as at 
present organized as a stupendous evil, and he em])hat- 
ically declared, that its ])ower, " if not diminished, 
must terminate in its own destruction, or an entire revo- 
lution in our social and })olitical system :" And that of all 
Banks, he reirarded a mere Government Bank as the most 
dancrerous, may he safely inferred from the fact, that nei- 
ther the ties of party, nor the entreaties of the adminis- 
tration, nor the exigencies of the most critical period • 'f 
the war, could prevent him from vigorously o])posing 
such a Bank, though not then hostile to an U. States 
Bank, lie advocated the Bank of 1810, as indisj)en- 
sahly necessary for the restoration of the currency, and 
to the last he helieved that no other expedient could 
have effected that great olgect. lie avoided the con- 
stitutional question, hy assuming that so long as the 
Government received Bank notes at all as money, it 
was hound to "regulate their value," and for that })ur- 
pose a Bank Avas ''necessary and proper." lie said 
however, even then, that " as a question de novo^ he 
would he decidedly against a Bank ;" and when in 1<S;^7 
he thought it could he done with safety, he took an 
active an efficient ])art in excluding all Hank notes 
from the Treasury of the l"nite(l States. 

During the Session of 181(>, arose another <>f those 
great (piestions, which may he said to have had their 
origin in the war, and which have since so divided ami 
agitated our country. Mr. Jelft ison had recognized 
the power of Congre.ss to apj»ropriate money for Inter- 
nal Im])rovem(aits in the cjisc c)f the Cundx-rland Hoad, 
and in IsnS Mr. Gallatin, his Secretary of war, had 



16 OEATION ON THE LIFE, CHAEACTEE AOT) 

made a report, recommending a stupendous system. It 
was not until after the war, the expenses of which had 
been enormously increased by the costs of transportation, 
that the subject attracted the serious attention of the 
whole country. Mr. Calhoun brought forward and 
carried in 1816, a bill appropriating the bonus and di- 
vidends of the United Bank to Internal Improvements. 
This bill was vetoed as unconstitutional by Mr. Madi- 
son, to the surprise of all, and most especially of its 
author, who believed he was carrying out the views 
entertained by Madison, and suggested in his annual 
Message. In 1818, Mr. Calhoun, as Secretary of War, 
made a Report on Roads and Canals, embracing views 
and recommending measures fully as extensive as those 
of Mr. Gallatin. On none of these occasions, did Mr. 
Calhoun express his opinion as to the constitutional 
power of the Federal Grovernment to carry on Internal 
Improvements. But if his 023inious may be inferred 
from those of his most intimate and confidential friends— 
from the celebrated Message of Mr. Monroe in 1823, 
and the equally celebrated S23eech of Mr. McDuifie 
shortly after, it must be conceded that, at that time, he 
beheved the power of the Government to lay taxes, 
and aj)23ropriate the proceeds, was limited only by the 
injunction that they should be applied to the " com- 
mon defence and general welfare." This doctrine in 
every way so fatal in our political system, has since 
received its severest blows from his hands ; and, in 
1838, Mr. Calhoun declared that one of the most es- 
sential steps to be taken, in order to restore our go- 
vernment to its original purity — then the great and 
sole object of his political life — was to " put a final 
stop to Internal Improvements by Congress." 



SEIIVICKS OF JOHN C". CAIJIol X. 1 



»T 



With the Sesr^iou of 1810-17 closed Mr. Caijioi-n's 
services in the House of Kcjjrcscutatives; aiul here 
also terininatcd an cporli in his i-aiver as a Statesman, 
lie had Jiioic than fulfilled the hii,di exi)ectatioiis en- 
tertained of him wlu'U he entered Conij^ress. His repu- 
tation for talent had increased with every intellectual 
ert'ort he had made. And his aliility, — now univeisally 
admitted to be of tlie very hii^^hest order, his u cll-tried 
l)atriotism, his unflinching moral courage, the loftiness 
and liberality of all his views and sentiments, and the 
immaculate purity of his life, gave liiiu a ])osition in 
the ]iublic councils and in tlie opinion of the country, 
second to no one of that illustrious band whom the 
greatest crisis in affairs since the revolution — '' the sec- 
ond war of Independence" — had brought uj)on the 
stage. 

In revnewing Mr. Calhoun's political course up to 
this period, if witli the sternness of the historian, we 
brush aside the splendid lialo that surrounds it, and 
call to our aid the experience of a third of a century 
of rapid progress: above all, if we examine it by the 
effulgent light which lie himself, mt)re than all otiier 
men, Iuls since shed upon the Federal Constitution, and 
judge it by those rigid and severe tests wliich he has 
taught us, we cannot fail to i)ereeive that brilliant, 
useful and glorious, a.s it was to his country and him- 
self, liis views in many most im])ortant j)articulars were 
essentially erroneous; and tliat lie assisted ])owerlully 
ill giving currency to opinions and liuilding uj) systems 
that have })roved seriously injurious to the South, and 
j)rol»ably tt) the stability <»f the existing linioii. 'I'hese 
I have not hesitate<l to jioint out. It was due to trutli, 
to history and to him. 



18 ORATION ON THE LIFE, CHAExVCTER AND 

It has been customary to apologize for tliese errors, 
by saying that they were the errors of youth. But 
Mr. Calhoun had no youth to our knowledge. He 
sprung mto the arena like Minerva from the head of 
Jove, fully grown and clothed in armour : a man every 
inch himself, and able to contend with any other man. 
A severe moralist would point to them as conspicuous 
proofs of the fallibility of our nature, since the deep- 
est devotion both to the Union and his native section 
and the most perfect purity of purpose, comljined with 
the subtlest intellectual acumen and the profoundest 
generalization could not save him from them. There 
may be much truth and wisdom in this view. But there 
are reasons why Mr. Calhoun should have fallen at that 
time into the opinions that he did, which properly con- 
sidered would remove every shadow of suspicion from 
his motives, if any has ever been seriously entertained, 
and almost wholly excuse the most sagacious of men 
who laid no claim to inspiration. 

Although there were from the commencement of the 
Government two pai'ties, one of whom contended for a 
strict and the other for a latitudinarian construction of 
the Constitution, a review of the practical questions 
which arose between them would show that few or none 
of them were of a sectional bearing. The iVlien and 
Sedition Laws, which produced the greatest excitement 
of any internal question, had no such tendency. The 
Fundinof of the Domestic Debt mi^ht have been so 
accidentally; but no question necessarily and perma- 
nently sectional attracted serious notice until after the 
second war. In fact, under the administrations of the 
earlier Presidents, all those sectional jealousies which 
had displayed themselves so consj^icuously during the 



SEltVICES 01-' .lulIN C. (AI.lIorN. 19 

Confederation, and which are so ]>roniinent in the de- 
bates ol' the Convention that framed the Constitution, 
had been hdh'd to sk-ej): and a hiri,a' j)ro|)ortion of the 
al»le.st Southern men were Fedei-alist.s. The great ques- 
tions uliieli did airitate tlie country, on w hicli tdections 
turned, and parties really, tliough not altogether, nomi- 
nally divided oil* wen^ external, not internal questions. 
Our Colonial habits still predominated, and \ve l<>okc(l 
abroad for our dangei*s: for our enemies and our 
friends. English, French and Spanish neg(>ciation<: 
Jay's Treaty: the squabble ^vith the Directory: the 
acquisition of Louisiana: the terrible \vars of Euroj)e: 
the aggressions on our neutral rights : and finally the 
eml)ai'go — non-im])ortatiou — non-intercourse Lnvs and 
war with England : — these were the great and deeply 
interesting subjects which a1)sorbed men's minds and 
colored all their political opinions. The Constitution 
was overlooked and violated by both parties; and I 
believe it may be said that on no (juestion of a consti- 
tutional character were party lines stringently drawn 
after the election of ^Iv. Jetl'erson. ]Mr. ^fonroe de- 
clared on his accession, that we were "all Federalists — 
all Kepublicans." 

It was under these circumstances an<l at a ]>eriod 
when, above all others, an ardent and patriotic mind 
would be least disposed to contemplate sectional inter- 
ests or stickle about constitutional scruples, that Mr. 
Caliioux entered Congress. It \Vix<, indeed, th*- impe- 
rative duty (»f the patriot then to discard all mere sec- 
tional considerations; and, })erhaj>s, t(j give the most 
liberal construction to the Constitution, to enable the 
slii]) of State to meet and ride out the storms which 
threatened to engid])h it. The dillicultics were im- 



20 OEATIO]^ ON THE LIFE, CHAEACTER AISTD 



mense. Mr. Calhoun, placed at once in a liigli and 
responsible position, and taking, as was said at tlie 
time, the war npon his shoulders, was absorbed during 
his first three Sessions in devisino; measures to meet its 
pressing exigencies ; and during the last three in en- 
deavoring to dissipate its injurious effects upon the cur- 
rency, commerce and industry of the country. And 
considering the history of the past: the conduct of 
j)arties on internal constitutional questions: the habit- 
ual disregard of strict construction by the Republican 
leaders : the acquiescence of older and very able men 
of all sections in the constitutionality of the Bank, the 
Tariff and Internal Improvements, it is not at all to be 
wondered at, nor to be severely condemned, that in 
the universal confusion and the burning glow of his 
broad patriotism, so fanned by current events, he should 
fail to look at the sectional bearing of propositions, or 
even of constitutional constructions. No man — not 
one in our wide confederacy — North or South — fore- 
saw what was coming out of the convulsions of the 
war; and the measures adoj^ted to ease dowii the 
country to a state of peace, and prepare her for a 
prosperous career under circumstances so greatly differ- 
ent as were those of 1815-17, from any she had yet 
encountered. Carpings and croakings there were of 
course, and prophecies of e^'il in abundance. But the 
results baffled all predictions : or at least verified so 
little of what any had foretold, as to place the wisest 
seer on no higher tripod than that of a lucky fortune- 
teller. Mr. Calhoun never croaked or carped. And 
if he erred in straying from the narrow, but only true 
path of rigid constitutional construction, he may well 
be forgiven for following precedents that were almost 



SEKVICI-i^ OF JOHN C. CALIIOIX. 21 

consecrated — the examples of nearly all with whom he 
acted — and tlic impulses of a generous, contidinu-, and 
wide extended love of country. 

Soon after Mr. Monroe's accession to the Presidency, 
]\rr. Caliioux received the a))])ointment of Secretary 
of War, and took his seat in the Cal)inet in December, 
1817, where he remained until March, 1825. Tliis 
])eriod end>racc'<l llic second epocli of his career. Tlie 
future biographer will find in it mucli that will lie in- 
teresting to relate, but on an occasion like this it may 
be pa.ssed over without any minute examination. From 
the commencement of the war it had been discovered 
that the internal organization of the War Department 
was so defective, that it was almost impossilde to con- 
duct its affairs with due efKciency. It was in vain that 
three diflerent Secretaries were in succession at its head 
during the war, and a fourth api)ointe(l at its close. 
W^heu j\Ir. Caliioux took charge of it, nearly three 
years aftei-, he found unsettled accounts to the amount 
of foi'ty millions, and the greatest confusion in e\'ery 
branch. In a remarkably short period he introduced 
a perfect organization, in which all the details were so 
thoroughly and judiciously systematized, that no mate- 
rial changes have been made to this day. He reduced 
tlic unsettled accounts to a few millions, which were 
not suscejitiljle of l!iiiiidation,and against incessant and 
])owerful oj)j)osition curtailed the discretionary ex]ien- 
ses nearly one half, while at the same time the efficien- 
cy of the Army was greatly increased, and liis own 
po])ularity in it grew with every reform, and to tlic 
last day of his administration. 

Afany of Mi-. Calhoun's best friends liad advised 
him not to accept this a}»pointment. Tip y knew tlie 



22 



OKATIOlSr 0]S" THE LIFE, CHAEACTER AND 



apparently insuperable difficulties of re-organizing that 
Department wliicli had baffled so many able men- 
They thought that his mind was of a cast too abstract 
and metaphysical to cope with the practical details of 
the Military System, and were appi-ehensive lest his 
brilliant reputation might be clouded. They did not 
remember that if real genius is not universal, both war 
and poKtics are but the concretes of Philosophy : that 
in ancient times these pursuits were almost invariably 
united : that the greatest of metaphysicians was the 
founder of the science of Politics, and tutored the 
greatest warrior of antiquity : that Bacon presided in 
the House of Lords: that Carnot "organized victory:" 
that, in short, though politicians and soldiers may 
spring up every day, and strut their hour upon the 
stage, no one can be a statesman or a general who has 
not analyzed the structure of the human mind, and 
learned to touch the remotest springs of human action. 
High as Mr. Calhoun's legislative talent had been 
rated, he had not been long in the War Department 
before his administrative talent was regarded as equal, 
if not superior; and he rose so rapidly in the estima- 
tion of his countrymen, that early in i\ir. Monroe's 
second term, when he was only forty years of age and 
had been l)ut little more than ten years in the Federal 
Councils, he was nominated for the Presidency by the 
large and influential State of Pennsylvania. He sub- 
sequently consented to have his name withdrawn in 
favor of Gen. Jackson. He was then nominated for 
the Vice Presidency — was elected by a large majority, 
and took his seat as President of the Senate in 1825. 
In regard to his direct connection with that body as 
its |)residing officer, it is perhaps sufficient to say that 



SERVICES OF JOHN C. CAUIOUN. 23 

on all occa-sioiis hv fully ^Jnsta^lU'(1 liis reputation. No 
incident of lasting" importance occurred to elicit any 
extraordinary display of peculiar (qualities of mind or 
temperament, until near the close of his iirst term. 
But the ])erio(l of tli;it tiTiu constitutes a most im])ort- 
ant era in the annals of our country, ami also in the 
life of Mr. Calhoun. And hence may l>e dated the 
third and last ej)ocli in liis career. 

I have already adverted to the fact, that the Rej)ub- 
lican i)arty had long strayed from th(» straight and 
narrow path of constitutional construction in which it 
first set out. The events of tlie war had so utterly 
l)rosti-ated and disgraced the Federal Party, that at 
its close that party was dissolved, and the very name 
of Federalist almost universally repudiated. The check 
of op})osition removed, the RepuMican Party — with 
l>ut few exceptions — fell headlong into the very slough 
in wliich their advei-saries had foundered. They had 
everything in their own hands, and "feeling power 
they forgot right." A new party in the mean time grew 
u}», which afterwards assumed the name of "National 
Republican," and more lately of "Wiiig," al)Sorbing 
most of the old Federalists, and a portion of the old 
Republicu ns. Of this party was jMr. Adams — a con- 
verted federalist — who was elected President in 1S2-4, 
by the House of Representatives, through the instru- 
mentality of Mr. Clay, who became his Secretary of 
State. The manner of ^Ir. Adams' election : the ex- 
treme federal doctrines of his Iirst ^lessage ; and, above 
all perhaps, the exigencies of opposition awakened the 
genuine repul>licans to some consciousness of tlieir great 
and \ouiC cherished errors. Thev united on (len. Jack- 
sou as their candidate f >r the Presidency. Their ma- 



24 OEATION OF THE LIFE, CHAEACTER AND 

nifestoes breathed the true spirit of the republicanism 
of '98 ; and the Constitution became apparently the 
favourite study of those who had come into public life 
subsequently to that period. It is said Mr. Calhouis" 
avowed that until this time he had never fully ana- 
lyzed and understood the Constitution. This may be 
readily believed without referring to the instances al- 
ready mentioned, in which he had departed from it. 
He had always been, up to that time, in the majority. 
Majorities do not rely on Constitutions. Their reli- 
ance is on numbers and the strong arm. It is not to be 
expected of them to study, and it seems to l^e almost 
impossil)le for them to comprehend Constitutions, whose 
express purpose is to limit their power, and hedge in 
their 23rivileges. It is minorities who look closely into 
Constitutions, for they are their shield and tower of 
safety. Mr. Calhoun had, doubtless, read the Consti- 
tution attentively, and mastered its general principles. 
But there were parts he had not scrutinized, and a 
deep and vital spirit running through the whole, which 
he had never yet imbibed, nor had any of the younger 
men up to that period. In fact, a new style of con- 
stitutional questions now arose : or rather the progress 
of events had developed new and deeply important 
bearings in old questions. It now became manifest, 
for the first time since the Constitution had gone into 
operation, that it might be so construed as to oppress 
and ruin one section for the benefit of another. And 
it was also clearly seen that the South was the doomed 
section, and the chief instrument of destruction a pro- 
tective Tai'iff. 

It was well known that Mr. Hamilton, as early as 
1791, had with great power advocated the j^rotection 



SERVICES OF JOIIX ('. CALIIOrX. 25 

of niaiiiifiictiires, and that duties liad Ix't'ii iinpiKcd 
with that view; Init tliey were so extremely moderate 
as to be of little heiietit to that interest, and oansed no 
alarm in others. The dnties had heen increased nndcr 
every subsequent administration foi- the sake of reve- 
nue, and had been doubled during the w ai'. When in 
181G it became necessary to reduce the war duties, the 
question arose to Avliat extent they were to be retained 
for the protection of manufactures, and some of them 
were adjusted for that purpose at a high comparative 
rate, as I have ah'eady stated. These (hities were in- 
creased in 1820; and, in 1 824, the manufacturers again 
came forward with exorl^itant demands, which were 
acceded to. Then, for the first time in thirtv years, and 
by but a few voices, the constitutional power to ]u-o- 
tect manufactures was questioned. It was now obvious 
that the protected interest had '' au appetite which 
grew on what it fed on ;" and that in this countr}', in 
eveiy period of about four yeare, for reasons which it 
is unnecessary to dwell on here, it required new and 
enormous impositions. 

Mr. Adams had warmly recommended the })rotective 
tarilf, and Mr. Clay giving it the ad captandum title of 
the " American svstem," claimed to be its first cham- 
pion, and made it the leading question in the Presiden- 
tial canvass, from 1825 to 182U. The South had oj)- 
posed it with great Aigour and nnu-h unanimity in 
1824; because, on the ])rinciple of commmiism, it 
taxed tlie agricidtiiral inteiest to su|)])ort the manufac- 
tunng: and, inasmuch as we I'liniishcd two-thirds of 
the exj)orts that paid for the inq)orts on wiiich the du- 
ties were levied, it was fully believed aiul ])retty clearly 
demonstrated, that our small section ])aid neai- two- 



26 OEATION OF THE LIFE, CHAEACTER AND 

thirds of tlie revenue of tlie Government, besides pay- 
ing the manufacturers an enhanced price on the pro- 
tected articles we consumed. Some of the Eastern 
States opposed it also, because it injured commerce and 
navigation, but they ultimately came in to its support. 
The Western and Middle States were decidedly for it. 
To secure their support, and yet retain the support of 
the South, Gen. Jackson gave the equivocal pledge 
that he would sustain a " Judicious Tariff," which in 
the South was construed to mean a constitutional Re- 
venue Tariff'; and, elsewhere, to mean a Protective 
Tariff 
y^ In 1828, at the end of four years, as was usual, a 
new tariff' bill was brought forward in Congress. It 
was blotched and bloated with the corrupt bids of a 
majority of the Jackson party itself for manufacturers 
votes, to be paid in gold wrung from the already over- 
burdened South. And so extravagant were these bids 
that the protective interests hesitated to accept a bribe 
so monstrous, lest they should over-shoot the mark, and 
fall under public odium. It was thought at one time that 
the vote in the Senate would be a tie, and the fate of the 
bill would depend on the casting vote of the presiding 
officer. Mr. Calhoun was then Vice President, and a 
candidate for re-election on the same ticket with Gen. 
Jackson, whose election depended entirely on the sup- 
port of Mr. Calhoun's friends. It was confidently be- 
lieved that save Gen. Jackson, there was no one so popu- 
lar throuo-hout the Union as Mr. Calhoun, and his 
accession to the Presidency, on the retirement of Gen. 
Jackson, was considered almost certain. It was known 
that he was op230sed to this bill, and he was now ap- 
pealed to as the supporter of Gen. Jackson, and can- 



SKUVICES OF JOIIX C. CALHOUN. 27 

(lidate of the Repnl)ll<;iii Party foi- tlic Vice Prcsicleii- 
cy, and out of regard to lii> own future j)rosp(.'ftH, not 
to give Iii< easting vote against it, Imt to 1ea\f t1u3 
eliair, as was not at all uiiu-^ual, and allow the Mil to 
take tile elianees of the Senate. Mi-. Caliioin knew 
tlh' full import of his re])ly to this a])])eal. If lie not 
only refused to })ledge himself to a "Judieious Tai'itf," 
l)Ut openly and uik ([uixocally took his stand against 
the whole ])rotective system, now overwhelmingly j)o- 
pular, he surrendered, in all human ])i'()l>al)ility, every 
prospect of the Presidency, and must ])assthe remain- 
der of his life in comhatting with a small, and almost 
hopeless minority, not for power, not for glory, hut for 
justice, and, in a measure, for the existence of the South. 
He was tlnis, in a critical moment, called on to make at 
once, and forevei-, a decision which was to shape his 
destiny, and j)erliai)s the destiny of a whole people. 
He did not hesitate. He had now mastered the Con- 
stitution ; he also saw clearly the fatal tendency of the 
prominent measures brought forwai-d at the close of 
the war: and casting behind him all the glorious la- 
bours of the j)ast, and all the brilliant prospects of the 
future — holding in one hand the Constitution, and in 
the other truth, justice, and the violated rights of his 
native l;ui<l, he took his post Avith his little band ; wa- 
ged in the breach a truceless Avar of two ami twenty 
yeai-s, and perished there. 

Neither ancient n->r modern annals furnish a nobler 
exam])le of hei'oic sacrifice of self, i^'el yielded to 
populai- demands, and exchanged l)arty for j)ublic gra- 
tituile and iuHueiice. Burke gave up friends, ]»ut])ower 
sinileil upon him. Self-l)anished Aristides had satiated 
his aml)ition. Cato and Ibnt us, p«'i'islied in the sjiock 



28 ORATION OF THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND 

But ill tlie early prime of life, midway his yet unclieck- 
ed career — ^witli tlie greatest of ambition's ]^rizes but 
one bound aliead, Mr. CALHOUisr stopped and turned 
aside, to lift from the dust the Constitution of his coun- 
try, trampled, soiled and rent ; and bearing it aloft, 
consecrated himself, his life, his talents, his hopes, to 
the arduous, but sacred task, of handing it down to 
other ages as pure as it was received from the Fathers 
of the Revolution. Glorious and not bootless struggle. 
The Constitution has not been purified. It never will 
be ; but its principles have been made immortal, and 
will survive and flourish, though it shall itself be torn 
• to atoms and given to the winds. 
/ The magnitude of Mr. Calhoun's sacrifice may be 
more readily appreciated than the difiiculties of his 
undertaking. The diseases of the body politic had 
not only become deeply seated, but were complicated 
and peculiar. At the bottom was the now established 
doctrine that the majority had the unquestionable and 
the indefeasible right to place its own construction on 
the Constitution. On this arose not only the Tarift", 
but the Internal Improvement System, which had 
completely triumphed. Immense sums, the proceeds 
of high duties, were annually appropriated for the 
benefit of the Tariff States ; while the United States 
Bank, l;)y its control over the government funds, con- 
centrated the exchanges at the North, and made the 
protected section the heart of the financial system of 
the Union. Thus was formed a combination of sec- 
tional interests, sustained by a sectional majority under 
a corrupted Constitution, all bearing with fatal and 
relentless aim on the devoted South, while behind 
them another question, purely sectional and ha\4ng 



SERViri^S OF .KiTIX C. CAT.TTOT'X, '29 

nearly the same p^eograpliioal liiir-i, \va> «'a>;lly to lie 
discerned rearing its monstrous c'rest, and i)ortending 
danirei*s, in comi>arison to which all others sunk to in- 
significance. Among a liom(\geneous people, majorities 
and minorities fre(piently change places. Indeed it is 
natural, and where discussion and free action are allow- 
ed, it is inevitaljle that they should. But where they 
are sectional, even more than Avhere they are founded 
on classes, vital and antagonistic interests make the 
change a R(n-()lution, such as rarely happens without 
l)loodslied. A sectional majority remote, arrogant, 
and fatally l)ent on maintaining its supremacy and 
promoting its peculiar interests, never listens to warn- 
ing or to reason ; and the minority, if it has not the 
courajTfe or the strensrth to tender an issue of force, is 
soon corrupted, divided and necessarily enslaved. Mr. 
Calhoun could not have failed to perceive all these 
difficulties, and in abandoning under such cii'cumstan- 
ces his high position in the majority, to unite his for- 
tunes irrevocably with the weaker section, he exhibited 
an example, almost without a parallel, of disinterested 
patriotism and lion-hearted courage ; and of that " un- 
shaken confidence in the Pro\'idence of God," which, 
in his latest moments, lie declared to be his consolation 
and sui)port. 

/ Henceforth he is no longer to be viewed as the fa- 
vorite child of genius and of fortune. His ])atli is no 
longer strewed with garland^; and his footstei)s greeted 
with apjdause. Toiling in the deepest anxiety, yet 
hai)j)ily for himself, with the unfailing liojx'fulness of 
his nature, to accom})lisli his Ib'rculean task, he en- 
counters at every step the deadliest hostility. He is 
assailed on all sides and from every section — evenli'om 



30 OEATIOW 0^ THE LIFE, CHAEACTER AND 

his own. Envy and malice slioot tlieir long poisoned 
arrows, and ignorance and corruption shower every 
missile on him ; and it yet remains to be decided, and 
depends in no small degree upon the issue of the great 
struggle now approaching its crisis, whether he shall 
go down to posterity pourtrayed in the colors of the 
Gracchi of the Patricians, or the Gracchi of the People. 
The Tariff Bill of 1828 passed the Senate by a ma- 
jority of one vote, and became a law. So exorbitant 
were its exactions, that out of an import of $04,000,000 
it carried $32,000,000 into the Treasury. Mr. Cal-' 
HOUN, who had announced his intention to vote against 
it, was loud in his denunciations of it and of the protec- 
tive system ; and at the next succeeding Session of our 
State Legislature, an exposition was presented by the 
Committee of Federal Relations, drawn up by himself, 
in which the whole sul)ject was elaborately discussed. 
And he then suggested as the ultimate remedy, a re- 
sort to the State Veto — or Nullification as It is com- 
monly called. It was not, however, Mr. Calhoun's 
opinion that the remedy should be immediately ap- 
plied. It was certain that Gen. Jackson and himself 
would be elected President and Vice President in a 
few months, for as yet war had not been openly de- 
clared against him, his support being essential to the 
success of the Jackson Party. He thought it prudent 
to await a full explanation of Gen. Jackson's "judi- 
cious tariff;" and was not without hope that through 
his influence the protective system might be broken 
up. Besides, the period was near at hand when the 
Public Debt would be discharged, and no shadow of 
reason would remain for imposing high duties for reve- 
nue purposes. But the first message of Gen. Jackson 



SERVICES OF JOHN C. CALllol X. M 

removed every doubt as to Ills jtoliiy, and shewed 
clearly that he meant to sustain tlic Taritt' interest. 
He also produced a breach between himself and Mr, 
Caliioux as soon as the pi-oniincnt Executive ajjpoint- 
ments were contirmed, by revivini;- an dhl controvei'sy 
supposed to have been settle<l many years before. It 
wtu* evident that ^Ir. (.•aliioux liad been (h»omed from 
the moment he had deiinitelv taken hiouikI against the 
Protective System, and war was now made o])enly ujion 
him. 

Gen. Jackson did indeed denounce the Bank; and 
early in his first term he vetoed the Maysville Bill, and 
proposed a limit to appropriations for Internal Im- 
provement : a limit, however, that was uncertain and 
discretionarv with the President, and soon abandoned 

ft ' 

by himself. At the same time, he suggested a mon- 
strous scheme for the ]iermanent distril^ution among 
the States of the surplus revenue arising from the im- 
posts, thus clearly showing that he would uphold Pro- 
tection, even after the j)ayment of the Public Debt, 
and perpetuate the system forever by corrupting the 
States. 

Seeing then that there was no hope of any change 
in the action of the Federal Government, in regard to 
the Tarilf and its most ol)jectionable cognate measures, 
the question as to wliat remedy a State could apply, 
was seriously agitated in South-Carolina. ]\Ir. Caliioux 
proposed Nullification, and a c(jnsiderable majoi'ity de- 
clared for it almost at once. But it required a vote of 
two-thinls in the Legislature to call a Convention to 
enact a Nullifying Ordinanc(\ A wai-ni and even bit- 
ter ccmtest on tlii< ([uestion was waged among the ])eo- 
ple of this State, until the Octoljer election in ls.")i*. 



32 OEATIOiSr ON THE LIFE, CHAEACTER AND 

when the requiste majority was obtained. Gov. Ha- 
milton immediately summoned the Legislature to meet 
— a Convention was called, and in November of that 
year, all the Acts of Congress imposing duties, and 
especially the Acts of 1828 and 1832, were nullified 
and declared void, and of no effect in the State of South- 
Carolina. The Tariff Act of 1832 was named, because 
as was customary every four years, the duties had 
been revised that year, and shortly before. They had 
been revised with special reference to the payment of 
the public debt, which was then virtually accomplish- 
ed. The odious scheme of permanently distributing 
the surj^lus revenue had not been carried, though there 
was every prospect that it would l)e ultimately ; but 
while the amount of revenue and averasce of duties 
were very slightly reduced, by a large increase of the 
free list, comprising articles most useful to the manu- 
facturers, their particular interest were in fact much 
advanced, and the tariff rendered more unequal and 
more oppressive, than by the Act of 1828. Yet it was 
announced by all parties that this was a final and 
permanent adjustment of the protective system, and 
that the South could never exjiect any amelioration 
of it. 

Mr. Calhoun was still Vice-President of the United 
States, but Gen. Hayne having been recalled from the 
Senate and placed in the Executive Chair at this crisis, 
Mr. Calhoun was chosen in December to fill his place, 
and resigning his office, took his seat in the Senate. 
Gen. Jackson had immediately after the passage of the 
Ordinance issued his famous Proclamation, denouncing 
the proceedings of South-Carolina as treasonable, nul- 
lification as unconstitutional and revolutionarv, and 



SKKVin->^ OF .TOTTX C. rALlIOT'N. 33 

even tleiuiiiiT:, for tlu' tir.-^t time, I believe, in tlie his- 
tory of the country, the right of a State to secede. 
Tn fact, his doctrines went the full lengtli of negativ- 
ing all State Rights, and consolidating despotic ])o\ver 
in the hands of the Federal Government. And this 
wa.s followed by a message to Congress, demanding to 
be clothed with almost unlimited power to carry his 
^^ews mto effect by force of arms. The crisis wjvs j)eril- 
ous. We were apjiarently on the verge of civil war, 
for Sonth-Carolina on these hostile demonstrations flew 
to arms. It was expected generally that Mr. Calhoun 
and most of the South-Carolina Delegation would be 
arrested at Washington. But this was not done. A 
debate, however, arose in the Senate on the Bill em- 
bracing the recommendations of the President — com- 
monly called the Force Bill — wliicli \\\]\ go down to 
future times and live an imperishable monument of 
the patriotism and courage — the wisdom and foresight, 
the genius and eloquence of Mr. Calhoun. His speecli 
is not surj)assed by any recorded in modern or in an- 
cient times, not even by that of the great Athenian 
on the Crown. 

This debate can never l)e read without its being 
seen and felt that Mr. Webster, his only opponent 
woi-thy to be named, gifted as he is univei-sally ac- 
knowledged to be with talents of the higlicst order, 
and remarkable even more for his power of reasoning 
than for his lofty declamation, was on this iuemora])le 
occa'iion a dwarf in a giant's grasp. He was prostra- 
ted on every ground that he assumed. An<l if logic, 
l»uil(liu£; on undou])ted facts can demonstrate aii\ ni(»- 
ral propositiou, then Mr. C'alhoun made as clear as 

mathematical sohition his tlieory of our Government 
3 



34 ORATIOISr ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AISTD 

and the riglit of each State to judge of infractions of 
the Constitution, and to determine the mode and meas- 
ure of redress. When the dust of ages shall have 
covered alike the men, the passions and the interests 
of that day, this speech of Mr. Calhoun's will remain 
to posterity, not merely a triumphant vindication of 
the (State of South-Carolina, Ijut a tower-light to shed 
the brightest, purest and truest rays upon the path of' 
every Confederacy of Free States that shall arise on 
the earth. 

It is not probable that State Interposition will ever 
again be resorted to while this Union continues. More 
decisive measures will be preferred. But if the Fed- 
eral Government was created by a constitutional com- 
pact between Sovereign States, binding between those 
only that ratified it in Conventions: if only certain 
enumerated or defined powers were entrusted to it in 
its various departments, and all powers not granted it, 
explicitly reserved to the States entering into the com- 
pact : and if that compact appointed no special tribu- 
nal to decide when the Government thus created trans- 
cended the powers granted to it and trenched on those 
reserved by the States, it follows irresistibly that the 
States themselves must decide such questions : for if 
the Federal Government by any or all of its Depart- 
ments assumes as an exclusive right this transcendant 
power, then is that Government sovereign over those 
by whom it was created — the Conventions of the peo- 
ple of the States ; the limits to its powers, supposed to 
have been fixed in the most sacred and binding form, 
were only suggestions addressed to its discretion, and 
the whole mass of rights supposed to have been re- 
served absolutely to the States, have no existence save 



SERVICES OF JOUN C. CALHOUN. 35 

from its grace ami a\ ill. If, however, tlie States liave 
by vii*tue of their Sovereignty — and if it l)e liistori- 
cally true that at the time of the compact, each State 
was sej)arately sovereign and remains so still, — then, if 
each State has a right to judge, in Convention, of in- 
fractions of the Constitution, it follows with equal 
certainty that such State must determine for itself the 
*mode and measure of resistance to be a})})lied to such 
infraction, or else the right itself is a imllity. Two 
modes onlv of resistance are to be found. The one, to 
withdraw altogetlier from the violated compact : the 
other to nullify the unconstitutional act and compel 
the Federal Government to repeal it, or obtain a new 
grant of power from another Convention of the States. 
The Federal Government, or two thirds of the States, 
may call a Convention for that purpose. A single 
State cannot. It must therefore surrender, not only its 
reserved rights, but its entire Sovereignty, or resist if 
need be singly and independently, as South-Carolina did. 
In recommending Nullification to the State of South- 
Carolina in preference to Secession, which at that time 
it was almost universally agreed that a State had a 
clear right to resort to, Mr. Caliioux was mainly influ- 
enced by that deep, long cherished, and I might almost 
say supei*stitious attachment to the Union which mark- 
ed every act of his career from its commencement to 
its very close. For if there is one feature most j)romi- 
nent in Nullification as a remedial measure, it is that it 
is conservative of the Union — of that Constitutional 
Union, which is the only Union a patriot can desire to 
preserve. It was also recommended l)y the authority 
of the leadei*s and founders of the great lvej)ublii'an 
Party, ^Ir. Jefterson and i\Ir. Madison, wlio had pro- 



36 ORATION ON THE LIFE, CHAEACTER AND 

posed this identical measure to Virginia and Kentucky 
in tlie memorable crisis of 1798. 

The Force Bill was passed, but was immediately 
nullified by South-Carolina, and remains a dead letter 
in our State. In tlie meantime, however, both the 
Administration and opposition in Congress, had be- 
come alarmed, and introduced bills for reducing the 
Tariff, notwithstanding the loud declaration of finality' 
by both at the preceding Session. Ultimately the 
famous Compromise Bill was proposed by Mr. Clay, 
the great leader of the Protectionists, and was accej^t- 
ed by Mr. Calhoun and his colleagues from South- 
Carolina. It became a law and settled this perilous 
controversy. By this act, in consideration of twelve 
years being allowed for a gradual reduction of the 
duties, the principle of Protection was forever surrend- 
ered, and it was provided that at the end of that jDcriod 
no more revenue should ever be collected than was 
necessary for the wants of an economical Government. 

No pains have been spared by the majority to de- 
tract from the merit of the signal triumph achieved 
by South-Carolina and Mr. Calhoun in this arduous 
and memorable contest. More undoubtedly might 
have been gained. The term of the reduction was a 
long one : the final enforcement of the Compromise 
was not, as was afterwards proven, sufficiently secured : 
and the Force Bill was passed — a monument of the 
subserviency and degradation of an American Con- 
gress. The triumph might have been more complete ; 
but, shared with many, far less glorious, had South- 
Carolina been sustained by her sister States of the 
South. Most of these had denounced the Protective 
System as unconstitutional and oppressive, and pledged 



SERVICES OF JOHN C. CALHOUN. 



37 



themselves to resist it witli as iiiuch show of indigna- 
tion as South-CaroHna. Bnt when the honr of actnal 
conflict came, they slirunk from her side, and r(.'i)udi- 
ated the remedy. Slie took lier station in the breach 
alone, and single-handed won a victory whose renown 
can never fade, when she extorted from an overwhelm- 
ing and arrogant majority — in the teeth of declara- 
tions l)ut a few months old — a full snrrendci- of the 
Protective princii)le, imder sanction of a formal and 
peculiarly solemn act of Congress. 

Mr. Caluoun had now wholly devoted himself to the 
reformation of the Federal Government, and this first 
great step accomplished — although the struggle had so 
conii)k'tely isolated him that out of the South-Carolina 
delegation he had scarcely a supporter iu either House 
of Congress — he moved onwards in his course, unbent 
and undismayed. His pei-sonal fortunes were appar- 
ently forever shipwrecked, 

'• But he beat the surges under him, 



And rode upon their backs." 

His broad \'ision swept the whole circle of the politi- 
cal system, and he noted every plague si)ot of corrup- 
tion on it. He made a powerful attack on Executive 
patronage in a Report to the Senate, of which an im- 
mense number of co})ies Avere i)rintcd by that body. 
He struck a fatal blow at Executive usuri)ation by 
demonstrating that all tlu' discretionary powers are 
vested in Congress, and that the other Departments 
can do nothing ''n<'cessary and i)roi)cr to carry out 
their constitutional powers, without the previous sanc- 
tion of tlie law. He kept a steady eye on tlu; Surplus 
Revenue, which from various causes accumulated be- 
vond all exiM'ctation, notwithstanding the reduction of 



38 ORATION ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND 

duties under the Compromise Act. As this surplus 
must now be temporary, he thought it better to divide 
it among the States, than to keep it as a permanent 
fund, or to waste it in profligate and corrupting ex]3en- 
ditures. It was a cai^linal maxim with him to keep 
the Government poor. History shows that the most 
fatal vices of all Governments oris^inate in the com- 
mand of too much money. To lessen the necessary 
amount of revenue by curtailing expenditures, was an 
essential feature of Mr. Calhoun's great scheme of 
reform. He did not fail to oppose every improper 
appropriation, and defeated many ; and finally suc- 
ceeded in carrying his j^roposition to relieve the dan- 
gerous plethora of the Treasury, by depositing the 
Surplus with the States. 

Some of the diseases of the Government Mr. Cal- 
•louN thought it would be dangerous to heal too sud- 
denly. One of these was the United States Bank, 
whose charter expired in 1836. Gen. Jackson had, in 
1832, vetoed a re-charter of it; and in October, 1833, 
he removed the Government funds from its coffers, and 
deposited them in the State Banks, without any au- 
thority from Congress. 

Mr. Calhoun condemned this high handed and un- 
constitutional measure, and believing that the Bank 
could not be closed immediately, without producing a 
financial convulsion — so completely had it brought 
the whole financial and mercantile system under its 
power — proposed to give it twelve years more to wind 
up its affairs. But he did not let the occasion pass, 
without clearly indicating his views of the Banking 
system. He said the Government ought, at a proper 
time, to be entirely divorced from all connection with 



SERVICES OF JOHN C. CALHOUN. 39 

Banks. '* I liavc irveixt douV)ts," lie said, '' ItMoubts they 
may be called, of the soundness and temlency of the 
whole system, iu all its modifications. I have great 
fears that it will be found hostile to liberty, and the 
advance of civilization, fatally hostile to liberty in our 
country, where the system exists in its woi*st and most 
danii'erous form." His proposition failed, however, and 
the Bank fell headlong into ruin, dragging thousands 
of victims after it, and spreading deej) gloom over the 
wliole country. It is but just, however, to say, that 
this disastrous catastroj)he, which did not occur until 
some years later, was due more to its oAvn violent and 
reckless ettbits to extend its influence and operations, 
to maintain its existence, and to revenge its defeat, 
than to the measures of the Government, unfair as they 
were. 

Early in 1837, shortly after Mv. Van Buren's eleva- 
tion to the Presidency, the financial crisis whicli Mr. 
Calhoux had long predicted, came. In the crash, the 1/ 
Banks suspended payments almost every where, and 
among them, the deposit Banks. By a joint resolution 
introduced by Mr. Calhoun in 1810, the notes of sus- 
pended Banks could not be received into the Treasury, 
and by a clause in the recent Deposit Act, such l^anks 
could not be nsed as Fiscal Agents. Tlius, suddenly, 
and in a most unexpected manner, the divorce between 
the Government and Banks was fully effected, and l)e- 
lie\nng tliat no injury could now result from keeping 
them separate forever, Mr. Calhoun cordiall\ and 
powei-fully supported j\Ir. \iui Buren's recommenda- 
tion, at the Extra Session of 1837, to re-organize the 
Treasury Department on the Sub-Trea'^iny plan. To 
the IVill inti-(»(luced, Mr. Calhoun moved an amend- 



40 ORATIOiS- ON THE LIFE, CHAKACTER AND 

ment, that specie only should be received in public 
dues, and made this the sine qua non of his sup23ort. 
After many defeats and great difficulties in a contest 
that lasted six or seven years, this Sub-Treasury sys- 
tem, with the sjiecie feature, finally prevailed, and has 
been found to work admirably. It has put an end to 
every prospect of the re-charter of an United States 
Bank, and that once alarming source of danger to our 
Institutions, may be said to be extinct. 

For the part which Mr. Calhoun took on this occa- 
sion, he was subjected to a new and tremendous tor- 
rent of abuse and calumny. His course since 1833 
had lead him to act mostly with the opposition, who 
were endeavoring to check the march of Executive 
usurpation. This opposition was composed chiefly of 
the surviving Federalists, and the recruits they had 
made from time to time, and now assumed the name of 
the Whig Party, and on this very question received a 
large accession of State Rights men, and even Nullifi- 
ers, whose attachments and hostilities to men, and to 
subordinate measures, blinded them apparently to 
principles. With all these, Mr. Calhoun parted, when 
he took his ground in favor of the •Sulj-Treasury. He 
was charged with deserting his Party when he had re- 
fused openly in the Senate to be called a Whig, and 
had again and again declared that he did not belong 
to either of the leading parties, but w^ould act indif- 
ferently with whichever might be promoting his views 
of the Constitution and true policy of the Countiy. 
The charge of inconsistency now so warml}^ urged 
against him, had been incessantly reiterated from 1828, 
and was continued, more or less, to the hour of his 
death. It is surprising, that in an enlightened age like 






SERVICES OF JOHN C. CALHOUN. 41 

this, such narroM' notions of consistency shoiihl so ex- \ 
tensively prevail. The situation of jniblic alfairs is / 
ever sliifting, and tlic wise and ])ati'iotic Statesman \ 
must necessarily vary liis own course to conform t<», or 
opj)ose every altered state of circumstances. New 
truths are daily develo})ed, not only in the scientific 
world, but in the M'orkings of political systems, and 
especially in our own. Those only who are ii^niorant 
of these discoveries, can remain without change in their 
opinions; and to change opinions, and not avow and. I 
act upon them, is to be basely and dangerously false. ( 
Cicero, when accused of inconsistency in having sided 
Avitli almost every party to Avhich the convulsions of 
his times had given Ijirth, fully admitted the fact, but 
nobly vindicated himself by showing, that, in every 
change, he had in view one consistent object — the good 
of Kome. Thus Cato, after years of warm hostility to 
Pompey, advised his countrymen to put all power into 
his hands. Thus xViitides volunteered to serve under The- 
raistocle ; thus Solon became the counsellor of Pisistra- 
tus,who have overthrown his Constitution. Mr. Calhoun 
himself, as long ago as his speech on the repeal of the Em- 
bargo, had very properly defined inconsistency to be 
" a chancre of conduct without achanf^e of circumstances 
to justify it." Tried by this stan«lard, he was never 
liable to any imputation of inconsistency. He never 
moveil in any direction vnthout giving such cogent 
rea.sons for it, as must satisfy every impartial mind, if 
not of the propriety, at least, of the reality of liis con- 
victions. Influenced by the highest and most patn- 
otic cousideratioiLS, and scorning the false and vulgar 
cry of inconsistency, he did not liesitate a moment in 
majrnanimouslv extending the thorouLrh and effective 



42 ORATION ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND 

support of his powerful intellect, in the hour of their 
greatest need, to the man who had been, he believed, 
his most zealous enemy, and to the party which had ex- 
cluded him from its ranks with the most violent an- 
athemas. 

He was now gladly welcomed back, and in the high 
and commanding position in the Republican Party, 
which, through the severest trials, he had a second 
time won for himself, it is difficult to over-estimate 
what he might have achieved, had that party been 
able to sustain itself in power at that time. But the 
name of Mr. Van Buren was not associated in the 
minds of the people, with any brilliant talents or illus- 
trious services. Magician, as he was said to be among 
his partisans, he could cast no spell upon the masses, 
excited by the wide spread financial troubles of the 
times, all of which were naturally attributed by the ig- 
norant, and not without much justice, to the errors and 
corruptioBS of the party then in power. He was over- 
thrown in the election of 1840, and the Whigs came 
into the Presidency with a majority in both Houses of 
Congress. An extra Session was immediately called and 
held in the spring of 1841, but before it met. Gen. Harri- 
son died, and the Vice President, Mr. Tyler, who, for- 
tunately for the country, though a Whig, had been 
bred a State Rights Republican, succeeded to the 
vacant Chair. 

The Whigs, elated with victory, rushed to Wash- 
ington, resolved to secure all its fruits without 
delay. Banks, Tariffs, Distributions of Revenue, the 
most prodigal expenditures for individual and sectional 
benefit, and Bankrupt Laws, to wipe off the embarrass- 
ment of past extravagance and speculation, swam in 



SERV1C1<:S OF JUIIX C. CALirODN. 43 

deliiTfhtful t'on fusion before their excited vision. Afea- 
sures were ])romptly broiiglit forward, and pics-^cd ou 
the minority Avitli unequalled energy and ai-rou^ance. 
Mr. Calhoi'x was the leader of the RepuMican I'arty 
in the Senate, lie penetrated every design, and met 
every movement of the Wliigs. To all the measures 
that could not be defeated, conditions were proposed 
and sustained with such unanswerable arguments, that 
the re-action of puljlic opinion comj^elled tlie maj<irity 
to pause, to waver, and finally give way : and the 
close of that Session, which had been called bv the 
Whigs to consolidate their power, found them not 
only a dis})irited, but vii-tually a defeated Party ; re- 
sults which were due in a great measure, to the activity 
and firmness, the jwwerful logic and profound States- 
manship of ]\[r. Calhoux. 

In that Session, however, and the two succeeding ones, 
during which the AVhigs remainetl in power, several 
unconstitutional and dangerous measures were forced 
through. The Bankrupt law, which was soon repealed. 
The distribution of Revenue, arising from sales of pub- 
lic lands, which exj^ired under the condition imposed on 
it. The re-charter of the Bank, which was vetoed by 
Mr. Tyler. The Tariff Act of 1842, which was equally 
stringent with that of 1828. This Act, Mhicli was pas- 
sed in open A'iolation of the Compi-omise Act of 1833 
— a violation which should forever put an end to all 
faith in Legislative Compromises by Congress, was jus- 
tified on the ground, that a lavL'-er r<'venue was indis- 
j)ensal)le to the Government. A justification delibe- 
rately ])repared before hand by the unconstitutional 
distribution of a portion of tlie Revenue, and the prod- 



44 OEATiojsr ojsr the lite, character and 

igal expenditures wliicli so many corrupt interests had 
fastened on tlie Government. 

A resort to State action to resist tliis oppressive act, 
was again proposed by some in South-Carolina. But 
Mr. Calhoun resisted it, because he believed that the 
next Congressional Elections would bring the Kepubli- 
cans into power, and that they would repeal the law. 
They obtained majorities, but did not repeal ; and in 
1844 a more strenuous effort was made to excite State 
interjjosition. But Mr. Calhoun resisted still. There 
was one ho23e left. The approaching election for Presi- 
dent would give the Republicans complete control of 
the Federal Government, and he desired to await that 
event. The fact was that after the experience of 
1833, — the consolidation principles then avowed by all 
parties and the growing alienations of the diiferent 
sections since, — he believed the Union could not sur- 
vive the decisive resistance of a State on points of 
\dtal interest, and his attachment to it was so deep 
that he was averse to putting it to hazard, while any 
reasonable hope was left of redress by other means. 
A Republican President was elected, and in 1846 the 
Tariff of 1842 was so materially modified as to forbid 
extreme resistance. But after all the struggles of more 
than a quarter of a century, the Protective System, 
though somewhat weakened in opinion and narrowed 
in action, still flourishes in violation of every principle 
of free and equal Government — a gross infraction of 
the Constitution, and a deadly injury to the South. 

During the Session of 1843, Mr. Calhoun again 
strikingly displayed his devotion to his country and 
the impossibility of surrendering his serious convic- 



SERVICES OF JOHN C. CALHOUN. 45 

tions and liis jxitriotic sense of duty to party consid- 
erations, 1)y strenuously and successfully opj)osing in 
common ■with the Whigs, a proposition from the Re- 
publican ranks to take possession of the whole of Ore- 
gon, without necessity, undei' douLtful title, and at 
imminent hazard of a war Avith England. And at tlie 
close of that Session he resigned his seat in the Senate, 
and retired from public life. 

His healtli. which, altliough his constitution had 
}3een considered diseased and ultimately ])roved to ])e 
so, had l)eeu almost perfect throughout his long ser- 
vice, began now to exhibit some symptoms of decay. 
And well it mio-ht : and Avell mii^fht he be wearied out. 
For ten — in tact for fourteen successive years, he had 
been ene^acred in a contest that taxed to their utmost 
all his ])hysical and mental powers. Body and spirit — 
he had devoted himself without a moment's respite to 
the arduous and perilous task of restoring a violated 
Constituti(jn and a corrupted Government. It had 
been one long, raging storm, Mith scarce a single inter- 
mission. A storm such as none but the most hopeful 
and the bravest would have dared to defy, and in which 
none but the most prudent, the most hardy, the most 
skilful — endowed with the rarest intellect, strengthened 
by every i"esource upon which genius can make a re- 
quisition, and held to the encounter by an unconquer- 
able will — could have outrode a second bla-st. Hut lie 
stood in the centre of the vortex, unldenched, im- 
moveable 

" As n tower, that fimily wt, 

Shakes not its top for any wind tliat blows." 

For the first time a cleai- expanse was now visible 
above the political horizon. The Federalists, tracked 



46 ORATION ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND 

through all their disguises, were again beaten to the 
ground. They lay prostrate, and the Republicans, 
after the salutary experience of a great reverse and 
many years of desj)erate warfare, all brought on by 
their own departure from the Constitution, were about 
to resume, in full, the reins of power, made wiser not 
only by the events of the past, but by the brilliant 
light which his clear and profound intellect had shed 
and concentrated around the principles of Constitu- 
tional Government ; and Mr. Calhoun, with thQ en- 
tire approbation of his friends, seized this apparently 
propitious moment to retire and recruit after his long 
and arduous labours. 

The State of South-Carolina in May, 1843, nomina- 
ted Mr. Calhoun for the Presidency. But in Decem- 
ber following he withdrew his name, when it became 
apparent that the Convention to be held at Baltimore 
to nominate the candidate of the whole Republican 
Party, was not to be constituted on principles analo- 
gous to the Constitution. He could not, with his \aews, 
accept a nomination, if tendered, by a Convention 
formed in any other manner, and he did not wish to 
embarrass the Party for mere personal considerations. 
He was not permitted, however, to enjoy his repose for 
any length of time. In the spring of 1844 he was 
nominated as Secretary of State by Mr. Tyler, without 
his previous knowledge; and the nomiuation being 
instantly and unanimously confirmed, he could not do 
otherwise than obey the call. Two critical and emi- 
nently important negociations were then on foot. One 
to adjust the Oregon question with England — the other 
to secure the annexation of Texas. In the latter his 
success was complete, and to him perhaps more than 



SERVICES OF JOHN C. CALHOUN. 47 

to any other, wt- owe that iinportaiit and iuvalual)le 
ac([iiisition. The Oregon uegociatk>n was not c'h)secl 
when Mr. Polk came into office, who did not tender 
him the re-appointment as Secretary, l>ut ottered and 
urged on liini an Embassy to England, to continue 
that negociat ion. Hut ])elieving his post of duty was, 
if any Avhere, on this side of the Atlantic, he declined 
the Enil)assy and returned once more to liis Plantation. 
In the hands of j\Ir. Caliioi:n's successor, the Oregon 
negociations completely failiMl. The Pi-esident was 
pledged by his ])arty to chiim the wlK)le of the Terri- 
tory, and the fulfilment of that pledge was now de- 
manded. Should Compress sustain the claim war was 
inevital)le, and as the Kepublican Party had majorities 
in both Houses, there seemed to be no escape. The 
whole country became alarmed. In this exciting crisis, 
the eyes of all parties, all interests, all classes, were 
turned instinctively to Mr. Calhoun, the pilot who had 
weathered so many storms — the sagacious and ])atri()tic 
Statesman who had been found equal to every emer- 
gency. Ilis return to the Federal Councils was called 
for from ^very quarter, and his successor in the Senate, 
Judge linger, with a rare magnanimity, offered to give 
way for him. There was no resisting such aj)j)eals, and 
he returned to Washington" late in J)eceml)er, 184G. 
When he took his seat, it was so fully understood that 
the Executive, ])acked by a majorit\ in Congress, was 
resolved to {issert our right to the wjiole of Oregon, 
and to attempt to take immediate possession of it, tliat 
the opposition was paralyzed in des])air. He did not 
lose a moment in taking a clear, decided and o])en 
stand airainst the A(bninistration he liad contril)uted 
so largely to Ining into power, lb- lallied the dispir- 



48 ORATION Oisr THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND 

ited opposition, composed cliiefly of Whigs, with whom 
he had lately been so violently contending. He ap- 
pealed to the country against the Republican Party. 
The sound common sense of the people sustained him : 
and the tide of public opinion set in so strongly in 
favour of a compromise with England, that negocia- 
tions were resumed with fresh vigour, and in a few 
months the whole question was adjusted to the entire 
satisfaction of the great body of every party in the 
two countries. In his whole public career, .Mr. Cal- 
houn had never rendered a more conspicuous — perhaps 
not a more substantial service to his country ; and it 
was appreciated and acknowledged throughout the 
Union. To him, and almost to him alone, was justly 
and universally accredited the distinguished merit of 
having saved the United States from a war with the 
most powerful nation in the world, about a matter so 
insignificant as to be almost frivolous, and in which 
neither the honor nor the interests of either were seri- 
ously involved. Thousands of such wars disfigure the 
pages of history, and have often been the most bloody 
and disastrous. 

But this affair had hardly been placed in a sure 
train of settlement before another difficulty arose, in 
appearance far less formidable, but in its results likely 
to prove much the most important in our annals, since 
the Revolution. A sudden, and to the great body of 
our people, most unexpected war broke out with Mexi- 
co. Pending negociations with that Republic concern- 
ing the western boundary of Texas, a portion of our 
Army had been, contrary to the usual courtesy of na- 
tions, marched into the disputed Territory. The Mexi- 
cans attacked it. Battles ensued, and a flame was 



riKUVlClJi OF JOlI.N t'. rALllOL'-N. 49 

kindled, wlikli spn-ad iiistaiitaueously over Koth coun- 
tries. Congress was called on to declare, or rather tt) 
recognize the existence of war, and to make the most 
extensive provisions for its vigoroiH ])rosei'utii>n. Mr. 
Caliioi'X, without a moment's hesitation, took his stand 
auainst the war. lie condemned the invasion of dis- 
puted territory, hut lus it ha<l Ikmii done antl hattles 
fought, he was for voting such supplies lUS would enahh' 
our army to maintain its })osition, and without recog- 
niziuir a state of war, to renew necrociations. But he 
stood alone — literally alone — abandoned ])y all parties 
in the Senate. Yet he did not waver. He knew that 
peace was the fundamental policy of our country. 
That war wa^ disastrous to all its real interests, and 
wa.s only to he waged to maintain that most \4tal of 
all interests — its honor. And that could never be 
involved in a contest with so weak a power as Mexico. 
He saw, too, tliat all his hoj)es of reforming the Gov- 
ernment and resuscitathig the Constitution must vanish 
when the sword was drawn. Other fatal consequen- 
ces were also apjiarent to his keen vision. But he 
could not see all. No human sagacity could penetrate 
them then, or can penetrate them now. Afr. Calhoun 
declared that though he foresaw much evil, for the lii-st 
time in his whole ])ul)lic life, he could not form a ra- 
tional conjecture of the end — that an impenetra1)le 
curtain had fallen betwixt him and the future. For 
the fiist time, too, he was sunk in glot>ni. And that 
great heart, which had never before felt fear, wjw 
stricken with terror — almost with despair. Hostilities 
were carried on with vigour. Victory crowned every 
effort of our arms; and an iniperishalth* wreatli <>f 
military glory was won for our flag — South-Carolina 



50 ORATIOX OlSr THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND 

contributing some of the brightest and most unfading 
flowers. Mr. Calhoun steadily interposed on every 
opportune occasion to arrest the progress of the war, 
brilliant as it was ; and hailed with delight the Treaty 
of Peace, which was ratified early in 1848. 

The first important conseqiience of the war was an 
immense expenditure, — far exceeding the ordinary 
revenues, and entailing on the country a heavy debt, 
which has put an end to all prospect of an early re- 
duction of the Protective Duties. The next was the 
overthrow of the political party which conducted it, 
by the elevation of one of its successful Generals to 
the Presidency. An event not due so much to the 
errors committed by the one, or the wisdom and pat- 
riotism displayed by the other party, as to the disgust 
felt by a large portion of the people for both, and their 
desire to establish for once an administration that would 
not be governed by party considerations — a desire 
which has been altogether disappointed. The third 
great consequence of the war has been the unparalell- 
ed excitement occasioned by the attempt and failure to 
make a fair division betAv^een the Slaveholdiug and 
non-Slaveholding sections of this confederacy, of the 
immense territory acquired from Mexico — an excite- 
ment in the midst of which we now are, and the result 
of which it is not given us to foresee. 

I have omitted thus far to do more than incidentally 
allude to a question of the highest and most vital 
interest, which has long and deeply agitated our coun- 
try, in the conduct of which Mr. Calhoun has acted 
throughout a conspicuous and leading part. At the 
period of the Declaration of Independence, African 
Slavery was established in every Colony, and as late 



SERVICES OF JOHN C. CAUIOUN. 51 

as the formation of tlie Constitution, Slaves were still 
held in every State. But it Wiw a decaying institution 
every where save iu the Plantation States, and great 
apprehensions existed among the Southern membei-s of 
the Convention that the otlicr States would combine to 
emancipate all the Slaves immediately, or gradually. 
They therefore refused absolutely to enter into any 
union with them without a distinct agreement on this 
essential matter. One great object in so constructing 
the Federal Government that it. should have no powei*s 
not clearly conferred upon it, reserving all others to 
the States, was to prevent legislation on this subject. 
But l)eyond this the Southern Delegates reipiired a 
Constitutional obligation from all the other States, to 
assist them in maintaining their authoi-ity over their 
Slaves, in case of necessity, by restoring fugitives and 
aiding to put down insurrections. They also demanded 
a recognition of Slaves as a j)ermanent element of ])0- 
litical power and a fixed caste, by assigning them a 
representation, though a restricted one, in Congress. 
From the adoption of the Constitution up to 1810, the 
harmony between the North and South was never for 
a moment seriously disturljed by the Slave question. 
At that period, when Missouri applied for admission 
into the Union, the North, where African Slavery wius 
uow almost wholly extinct, opposed her application, on 
the ground that Slaveholding was j)ermitted by her 
Constitution. A deeply exciting controversy immedi- 
ately arose, which was finally adjusted by the concess- 
ion from the South that thereafter no Slaveholdingr 
State should be admitted into the Union North of 
36o 30' N. latitude. 

For many years nftei- that there was no o])en agita- 



52 OEATION ON THE LIFE, CHAEACTER AND 

tion of this exciting topic, and public men in every 
section generally concurred in frowning upon all at- 
tempts to bring it forward. It was not until 1834 or 
'35, that it again made its appearance on the political 
stage, when petitions were poured in upon Congress to 
legislate uj^on it. It was then discovered that without 
attracting much attention, a great many Abolition 
Societies had been formed in the Northern States, who 
had set up presses and printed books, pamphlets, 
newspapers and engravings in immense numbers, and 
disseminated them North and South for the purpose of 
arousing the people to what were termed the horrors 
of African Slavery. Public lecturers were also em- 
ployed and sent every where. The excitement in- 
creased rapidly. The people of the non-Slaveholding 
States seemed ripe for it. But lately they had been 
apparently baffled in their attempt to make us the 
overseers of our Slaves for their benefit. No longer 
having it in prospect to reap the harvest of our fields 
and gather into their own granaries, by virtue of their 
legislation, one half of the nett produce of the labour 
of the Slaves, they were eager, in their rage and disap- 
pointment, to deprive us of the Slaves themselves*, and 
blast our prosperity forever. Both branches of Con- 
gress were soon flooded with petitions, full of the vilest 
abuse and slander of the South, and praying for the 
Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. Others followed asking the Abo- 
lition of Slavery in the Territories, Forts, Dockyards, 
&c., and of the trade between the States. Some de- 
manded the Abolition of Slavery in the States ; and 
finally it was petitioned that the Union should be dis- 
solved to save the North from the sin of Slaveholding. 



SERVICES OF JOHN C. CALHOUN. 53 

Warm and at lenq-tli tlie most angry debates in Con- 
gress were brought aliout by these petitions. At first, 
few or none professed to be in favoui- of them, yet the 
non-Slavehohling majority never would jH-rniit tlie 
South to adopt any decisive measure to excbi(K' them 
from the Halls of Congress. In no long while, how- 
ever, there was a complete change. Tlie Abolitionists 
were soon strong enough to enter fully into the [)oliti- 
cal field. They nominated candidates for President 
and \' ice-President, and exhibited the startling fact, 
that in that election they held the balance of power 
between the ])arties in several of the largest States. 
From that moment they were courted openly or secret- 
ly by nearly every aspiring politician in the non-Slave- 
holdinij' States. They soon sent members to Contrress 
as their especial Kepresentatives, and struck down 
every public man iit the North who dared to defend 
the institutions of tlie South. 

Against this violent crusade on the South, ]Mr. Cal- 
houn took his stand at the very first and cond)atted it 
with all his powers, at every stej), and to the latest 
moment of his life. lie succeeded in arresting the 
circulation of Abolition publications through the mail, 
and for a long time lie kept their ]H'titions at the 
threshold of the Houses of Congress. In fact. Abolit- 
ion petitions were formally received in the Senate for 
the first time, on the last day that he aj)peared there. 
From the ])eginning he predicted the progress of this 
agitation through all its stages, and declared that it 
must ine vital )ly bring aljout a dissolution of the Union, 
if not put down early and forever. 

While the Al)olitionists have directetl theii- attacks 
against specific ])arts of the Slave system, they have 



54 ORATION ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND 

never made any secret of what indeed was perfectly- 
apparent, that from the first their object was the entire 
emancipation of all the African race in the United 
States, without removal and without compensation to 
their owners, since removal or compensation are known 
to be utterly imj^ossible. They proclaimed that by 
the laws of nature all men ai'e free and equal ; and 
that African Slavery is a social and political evil, and 
a deadly sin against God. Mr. Calhoun contended 
that if our Slavery was a social evil and sin, we alone 
would be the sufferers and should be allowed to deal 
with it ourselves. Politically he claimed for it only 
the fulfilment of the solemn guarantees of the Consti- 
tution. But he thous^ht it could not be a sin since 
God had expressly ordained it, nor an e\'il since both 
the white and black races had improved in every point 
of view under the system. He scouted the idea of 
natural freedom and equality. Men were born help- 
less, and owed life, liberty and every thing to those 
who nurtured them. A state of complete natural 
liberty was inconceivable. Even the wildest savages 
placed severe restraints upon it. And so far from men 
being created equal, no two men, and in fact no two 
things, were ever yet created precisely equal. Ine- 
quality is the fundamental law of nature, and hence 
alone the harmony of the universe. But it was useless 
to attempt to reason with enthusiastic Abolitionists, or 
with the masses of the non-Slaveholders, equally bigot- 
ed in their abstract notions of morality, freedom and 
equality. It was still more useless to attempt to rea- 
son with politicians who existed only in the breath of 
such a people. A majority influenced by such ideas, 
and led on, some by a fanatical zeal to enforce what 



SERVIC1':S OF JOHN C. CALHOUN. 55 

they believed to lie tnitli, others by tholitvc of power, 
aud all by the lioj)e ot" sj)oil, has never yet bcfii clt'ec- 
tiially checked except l)y force. 

It has not, however, yet l)ecome the ]>lan of tlie 
Abolitionists to carry their ])urj)oses by a direct and 
decisive exertion of the ])olitieal power they possess. 
They wish first to ac([uire a more overwhelniini!^ ])ower, 
both political and physical. And to effect this they 
have aimed steadily to enlarge their <>\vn domain and 
to narrow <lown that of the Slaveholders, while they 
have endeavored to divide the South by ai)j)eals to the 
consciences of all, and to the suj)posed interests of the 
non-Slaveholdei-s among us. And the two great politi- 
cal ])arties of the North have skill ully aided them in 
dividing and lulling the South for the })urpose of keej> 
ing uj) their own connections with theii- i-esj)ective 
allies here. They have united in denounciny-, and have 
taught many to denounce a^s ultraists, disunionists and 
traitors, all those who have attempted to awaken the 
Soutliern })eo])le to a sense of the dangers that envi- 
roned them. And more denounced than all the rest 
was Mr. Calhoun, whose sagacity could not be delu- 
ded — whose virtue was incorru])tible, and wh(«e con- 
stant exposure of their designs and effective oj^position 
to them, was apparently the greatest obstacle to their 
success. Listening to no compromises, and sna])ping 
instantly every party tie where this transcendant ques- 
tion was involved, he Avaged mortal com)»at on every 
issue, ojien or concealed. The great ditliculty with the 
Abolitionists was to identify their cause with soim; of 
the great practical ])olitical ([uestions of the country. 
The pretended itifringement of the mueh abused right 
of petition could not ))e made to sei've them materially, 



56 OEATIO]S ON THE LIFE, CHARACTEE AND 

for it was too absurd to contend tliat Congress was 
bound to receive and treat respectfully all sorts of pe- 
titions — petitions frivolous, unconstitutional and de- 
structive of law, order and society. ^Hien tlie an- 
nexation of Texas was brought forward, they fastened 
uj^on that and opposed it with great zeal and much 
effect, upon the ground that it extended the area of 
Slavery. But thei'e were too many interests even in 
the North in favour of annexation, and Mr. Calhoun 
was enabled to defeat them signally. But when the 
Mexican war was declared, a new and vast field was 
opened to them. It was certain that a large territory 
would be gained by that war: and it was scarcely 
begun before it was moved in Congress and carried in 
the House, and almost carried in the Senate, to pro- 
hibit Slavery in the domain that might be acquired. 

The alarm was immediately sounded, and the South 
appeared for once to be fully roused. A number of 
Southern States declared through their Legislatures 
that if this Prohibition was enacted they would not 
submit to it. While on the other hand a still larger 
number of Northern States made Legislative declara- 
tions in favour of it, and instructed their Senators to 
support it. And thus at length the Abolition question, 
always purely sectional, became again, as in the case of 
Missouri, but under far more ominous circumstances, 
the chief element in the most important practical po- 
litical issue of the day. From 1846 up to near the 
close of the late memorable Session of Congress, this 
contest was carried on in various forms with deepen- 
ing import, until at length it entirely absorbed the 
public mind, and occupied the Federal Government to 
the almost total exclusion of all other business. Early 



8KR^^CKS OF JOHN ('. rALnouN. 57 

in the last Session it came up <>ii tlic jji-oposition to 
admit California into the Union. A Kaiul of adven. 
tuivrs haviiii^ a><seinl)lo(l in that distant rei^ioii in un- 
known numbers, and to a great extent of unknown 
orii2^in — seareely any with leijal titles to lands, and still 
fewer with fixed residences — after calling a Convention 
without proper authority, formed a government and 
dennuided admission, as ;i Sovereign State, into the 
Union, with Boundaries embracing the whole Pacific 
coast to Oregon, and a Constitution, which, for the ex- 
press [)urpose of secui-ing the support of the non-Slave- 
holding nnijority, prohibited Slavery. 

Mr. Calhoun's health, which had been failing rapidly 
for a few years past, had at length become so feeble 
that it Avas evident to his friends he could not survive 
long; and during the jirevions summer it was consider- 
ed almost impossible that he could return again to 
Washington. To almost any other man it would have 
been impossible. But when he saw the great ])attle 
which he had so long led, had reached, as he believed, 
its iinal crisis: and that the fate of his country hung 
on the momentous movement which was about to be 
made, he discarded all thoughts of self-i)reservatiou, 
and hastened to the field, resolved to spend his htst 
l)reath in striking one more blow for the great cause of 
the South — the cause of Justice and of the Constitu- 
tion. 

Arrived at Washington, his health was so feeble that 
he was soon compelled to remain most of his time at 
his h)dgings, and went only occasionally to the Senate. 
In the mean while the conflict went fiercely on : and 
numerous i)lans for adjusting it were set afloat. Mr. 
Calhoun committed his views to paper, and on the 



58 ORATIOIN' ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AKD 

4th of March, after a long iDterval, appeared with it 
in the Senate. But he was not able even to read it, 
and transferred the task to his friend, Mr. Mason, a 
Senator from Virginia. In that speech he traced the 
territorial history of the United States, showing that 
the non-Slaveholding States, who originally owned but 
one fourth of the territory of the Union, were about 
to succeed, by the action of the Government and the 
concessions of the South, in getting possession of near- 
ly three-fourths of it : that by the system of revenue 
and expenditure which had been adoj)ted, much the 
larger portion of the taxes were paid by the South, 
while the disbursements were made chiefly at the 
North : and that while these measures destroyed the 
equilibrium between the two sections, the Federal Gov- 
ernment had concentrated all i)ower in itself, and in- 
terpreted the Constitution and ruled the country ac- 
cording to the will of a majority, responsible only to 
the Northern section, by v/hich it is elected. The re- 
sult of all, he said, was that " what was once a Consti- 
tutional Federal Republic, is now converted in reality 
into one as absolute as that of the Autocrat of Russia, 
and as despotic in its tendencies as any absolute Gov- 
ernment that ever existed." He showed that the Cali- 
fornia adventurers had no right to attempt to form a 
State without previous permission from Congress, and 
that what they had done was "revolutionary and re- 
bellious in its character, anarchial in its tendency, and 
calculated to lead to the most dangerous consequences " 
He gave a succinct history of Abolition from its origin ; 
shewed how it had gained strength year by year, and 
declared that " if something decisive was not now done 
to arrest it, the South would be forced to choose be- 



SER\^CES OV JOHN C. CALHOUN. 50 

tween Emancipation and Secession." lii- clcnuunccd 
the childish idea of preserving the Union l)y continu- 
ally crying " Union ! Union ! the glorious Union !" and 
expressed his conviction that thei-e was no other way 
to save it, Init l>v an amendment to the Constitution, 
"which would icstore to the South in su])stance the 
power she possessed of protecting herself, before the 
equilibrium between the two sections was destroyed by 
the action of the Government." 

No speech ever pronounced in Congress produced a 
more profound sensation there and in the country than 
this did. The deep and incalculable importance of the 
questions in issue ; and the fact that this was generally 
regarded as the last eiibrt of an illustrious statesman, 
who had for almost half a century lead in the councils 
of the Confederacy, scarcely heightened the intensity 
of the interest created by the novel and startling, yet 
sound and pro})li<'tic views which had been developed 
with a force and clearness rarely ecpialled. Mr. Cal- 
houn himself intended it rather as a ])reliininary 
speech. He still hoped that he could, by his iron will, 
Laffle and repel the advances of disea.se, and that God 
would spare him to consummate this last task. He 
had only laid down his groundwork, and reserved am- 
ple materials for reply, after all had exhibited their 
positions, and his had been sulticiently attacked. He 
did not even announce Avhat amendments to the Con- 
stitution he intended to propose. Whatever tliey 
were — for he afterwards said that several were neces- 
sary — the suggestion of them manifested his undimin- 
ished anxiety for the preservation of a Constitutional 
Union ; and the latest offering of his life wjls laid upon 
that altar at which he had so long worshipi)ed. It is 



60 ORATION^ ON THE LIFE, CHAEACTER AND 

scarcely to be regretted that he did not specify them, 
for nothing is more certain than that no amendments 
to the Constitution can ever be carried, that will give 
the South the express power of self-protection. They 
would not receive a single vote from that Northern 
majority, which wull ere long be large enough to amend 
the Constitution without the South, if it shall choose 
to regard forms in perpetrating its oppressions. But 
such amendments, if passed, would not avail the South, 
for her action under them would soon be denounced as 
revolutionary, as the clearly Constitutional right of 
Secession is now denounced. 

In fact, neither this Union nor any Union or Gov- 
ernment can exist long by virtue of mere paper stipu- 
lations. " Written Constitutions," said Anacharsis to 
Solon, " are but spiders webs, which hold only the poor 
and weak, while the rich and powerful easily break 
through." Solon thought otherwise, but lived to see 
the Government he established completely overthrown. 
Lycurgus, more wise, forbade written laws. His prin- 
ciples were durably impressed, by training from child- 
hood, on the minds and manners of his people, and 
interwoven with the whole social fabric. Ancj they 
governed the Spartans for six centuries or more. In 
modern France no enacted Constitution has survived 
five years ; while the Constitution of England, resting 
on traditions and occasional Acts and Charters, appears 
to bid defiance to time and progress. Those Govern- 
ments only can endure which naturally spring from 
the social system, and are habitually sustained by it. 
And written — artificial Constitutions ai'e indeed but 
" spiders webs" if they do not continually draw their 
vital breath from the same living source. For more 



SKRVIC1'>^ OF .ToIIX ('. (A I.IK UN. 61 

than twenty years the Federal C'oiistitutioii \rA< liei-na 
dead letter, or a snare to the minority. It lias, for 
that length of time, had no material iiilhunco in main- 
taining the Union of these States. They have been 
held together by habit: l^y the recollections of tlie j)a.st 
and a common reverence for the patriots and heroes of 
the Revolnti<m: l)y the ties of political parties, of re- 
lisfious sects, and l)usiness interconrse. l>ut the events 
of these twenty yeai'S, and mainly the d('veloj)mentsof 
Abolitionism, have clearly revealed to us that we have 
at least two separate, distinct, and in some essential 
points, antagonistic social systems, whose differences 
can never be reconciled and subjected to one equal and 
just Government, unless our respective industrial inter- 
ests are left free from every shackle, and the fell sjiiiit 
of Abolitionism crushed and entirely eradicated. Many 
of the cords which once bound these two systems to- 
gether have been, as IMi-. Calhoun jjointed out in his 
last speech, already snapped asunder. The religious 
bonds have been nearly all rui)turt'd : j)arty tics are 
going fast : those of business are serit)usly endangered. 
It is vain to hope to preserve the Union ]>y any com- 
mon sentiment of reverence for the past, or even by 
amending the Constitution, unless these severed chains 
can Ije relinked tofcether, and that In-otherly love which 
mingled the blood of our fathers in the battle fields of 
the Kevolution can be restored, b\ Piovidential inter- 
position, to its ancient fervor. It is, however, the ])ro- 
\nnce and the sacred duty of the statesman, whatever 
may be the ultimate result, to ])oint out tlu^ diseases of 
the Constitution and the (iovernment, and to ]»rop()se 
the best remedies he can. This was the great object of 
Mr. Calhoun for the last two an<l twenty years of his 



62 OEATION ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND 

career. For this iie lived : and to this his last efforts 
and his latest thoughts were consecrated. 

Consecrated in vain! for already the disease has 
passed a fatal crisis, and there is no longer a remedy- 
that can save. California has been admitted and the 
equilibrium of this Government has been destroyed for- 
ever. The edict has gone forth that no new Slave- 
holding State shall ever enter the Union: and the 
South, deprived at last and finally of her equality in 
the Senate, the only safe hold she ever had in this Con- 
federacy, and from which she has so long and so nobly 
battled for her rights, is now condemned to a minority 
that can know no change, in every department of the 
Federal Government. The Slaveholding States have 
become emphatically the Provinces of a great Empire, 
ruled by a permanent sectional majority, unrelentingly 
hostile to them, and daring as it is despotic. If they 
submit to continue thus, their history is already written 
in the chronicles of Poland, of Hungary, and of Ire" 
land — perhaps of St. Domingo and Jamaica. 

After the 4th of March, Mr. Calhoun went but two 
or three times to the Senate Chamber. His last ap- 
pearance there was on the 13th of that month; and as 
if the political storms which had pursued him so long 
were fated to pursue him to the last, he had on that 
day a warm debate, in which he was compelled to main- 
tain the expediency of his proposition to amend the 
Constitution : and to defend himself from the charge 
of aiming to dissolve the Union. He retired exhaust- 
ed, and returned no more. But still his thoughts were 
there, and his anxious interest for his distracted coun- 
try lent its excitement to every pulsation of his heart. 
" If I could have," he said as his end drew near, " If I 



?ET!VTrK-=; OF .Toirx r. cArHOTrpf. 63 

could have oiu- lutui' more to spt-ak in iln.* Senate, I 
could do more good than on any ]»ast occasion of my 
life." 

He ex})iivd ti-ant|uilly on tlic nioi-niiiL;- of the 'Mat of 
March. 

The deep and ])oignant grief which j)erva<h'd our 
State on the announcement of this event, althouLdi it 
was not unex})ected, I Avill not attcinpt to dcpic-t. Your 
own hearts i-etain and clicrisli a rcrolK'ction nf it more 
vivid and nioic dnraMc tlian rould be recalled or im- 
pressed hy any wonls of mine. The same feelings 
seemed to penetrate almost every portion of the Union. 
Since the death of Washington, no similar event, it is 
generall}' agreed, has produced a sensation so ])rofound 
and universal. Envy and malice, sectional hostility and 
party persecution, seemed to he instantly extinguished. 
His real greatness was at once fully acknowledged, and 
all united in ]iaying the highest honoi-s to his memory. 

Mr. Calhoun's moral character, as exhihited to the 
2)ul)lic, was of the Koman stamj). Lofty in his senti- 
ments, stern in his bearing, inflexible in his o])inions, 
there was no sacrifice he would not have made without 
a moment's hesitation, and few that he did not make 
to his sense of duty and his love of country. As a 
Consul, he would have been a l^iddicola, — as a Censor, 
Cato — as a Tribune, (xracchus. He was often denounced 
for his ambiticjn, but his integrity was never (juestion- 
ed. "Andfition is," as Mi-. Burke justly said, ''the 
malady of every extensive genius." Mr. Calhoun's 
enemies believed that it infected Jiim to an extraor- 
dinary and dangerous degree. Hut the enemies of 
every distinguished man have said the same. He un- 
doubtedly desired j)ower. But there is no evidence to 



64 ORATION ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND 

be found, either in his conduct or in his words, that he 
ever stooped to any mean compliance to obtain it, or 
that when obtained, he ever used it but in the purest 
manner and for the weKare of his whole country. The 
nature of his ambition was well tested. Eight years 
Vice-President: for as long a period a Minister of 
State : six years in the House of Eepresentatives, and 
fifteen in the Senate of the United States, he enjoyed 
all the power of the highest offices of our Government 
save the very highest, and that he would in all human 
probability have attained, but that his aspirations were 
subordinate to his principles, and these led him to re- 
pudiate his party, and throw himself into opposition to 
its corruptions when it was at the zenith of its power. 

That he did not reach the Presidency, and that no 
other statesman of the first rank has had the slight- 
est prospect of reaching it for the last five and twenty 
years, are among the most striking proot^ of the down- 
ward tendency of our Federal Institutions. 

In private life Mr. Calhoun was remarkably acces- 
sible. Open, unsuspicious, mild in his manners and 
uniformly warm, cheerful, and hopeful, he was interest- 
ing, instructive and agreeable to all who had the hap- 
piness to know him. While in every domestic relation 
his conduct approached as near perfection as we can 
suppose human nature capable of doing. 

The intellect of Mr. Calhoun was cast in the Grecian 
mould: intuitive, profound, original — descending to 
the minutest details of practical affairs; and soaring 
aloft with the balanced wing into the broadest heavens 
of invention. He appreciated wit and humor, the 
flights of fancy and the keen shafts of sarcasm ; but 
he either did not possess or entirely failed to cultivate 



SEUVICl->i C»F .lUllN C. CALHOUN, G5 

the faculties wliit-h Iciul tt) distinction in tlit-r lines. 
He julniired and valued lofty declamation on appio- 
priate occasions; and sometimes, tliouuh rarely, at- 
tenipted it himself, and not Avithout success. The force 
of his inuiiifination, his command of lan<niaLre, his no- 
bility of sentiment, and his enthusiastic temj)erament 
eminently (jualilied him i<>r declamation of the hii^hest 
order, and his themes were as well adapted to it as 
those of Demosthenes himself But the audience to 
which he commonly addressed himself could not hear 
his voice or see his action, or decide his cause uniler the 
spell of eloquence. It covered millions of square miles, 
and reached lar down the stream of time. And his 
keen judgment and deep earnestness would not often 
permit him to use weapons that could reach elfectively 
those only who were near at hand. The intellectual 
power of ]\Ir. Caijioux was due mainly to the facility 
and accuracy with which he resolved propi^sitions into 
their elementary ])rinciples; and the lustonishinu: ra- 
pidity with \\ hich he deduced from these i)rinci}>les all 
their just and necessary consequences. The moment a 
sophism was presented to him he })ierced it throui^h 
and through, and plunging into the labyrinth, brought 
truth from the remote recesses where it delights to 
dwell, and placed it before the eyes of men. It waa 
in these pre-eminent faculties that ]\[r, CALiunN'smind 
resembled the anticpie and ])artieularly the genuine 
Greek mind, which recoiled from ])lausibilities and 
looked with inetl'abh^ disgust on that mere gri»uping of 
associated ideas which so generally passes for i-easou- 
ing. It was ill conformity w ith these great intellectual 
endowments that he created all his s]>eeches and State 
paj)ers. It was commonly said of his j)roductious that 



66 OKATION ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND 

they were characterized by extraordinary condensation. 
But Mr. Calhoun was often careless in his diction, and 
habitually so in the construction of his sentences. He 
sought only the words that most clearly expressed his 
meaning, and left their arrangement apparently to 
chance. What he did do was to go straight to the bot- 
tom of his subject, following the slender plummet line 
of truth until he reached it. Then he built up in a 
manner equally direct, discarding all extraneous mate- 
rials : and erected a structure, simple, uniform and con- 
sistent, decorated with no ornament for the sake of 
ornament, and occupying no more space than was ne- 
cessary fo]- the purj)oses in view. 

The faculty of Invention — which is the highest cha- 
racteristic of genius — is the necessary result of rapid 
and correct analysis and synthesis. To the possession 
of these powers then is also due the acknowledged 
originality of Mr. Calhoun, which gave such a peculiar 
charm to every one of his productions, as led the pub- 
lic invariably to pronounce his latest to be the best. 
The common mind never looks beneath the surface, 
and draws its conclusions from the facts and arguments 
that float around it. Even rather uncommon minds 
seldom penetrate very deep or very quickly. From 
whatever subject, therefore, such extraordinary powers 
of analysis and generalization were brought to bear 
upon, they would necessarily extract ideas lying far 
beyond the range of others, and so new and startling 
as to overwhelm ordinary intellects and obliterate their 
confused remembrances of past productions, in which 
he had carried them delighted through equally unac- 
customed regions. 

Hence also arose and was received the charge, worn 



SERVICES OF JOHN C. CALHOUN. 67 

thread-l)are by reiteration, that ]\Ir. Calhoun's mind 
was too metaphysical and s])eeuh\tive for conducting 
the attairs of Government. A chari^e which, if it wils not 
absurd in it>elf, was si^rnallv refuted by his conduct of 
the AVar, l)y his organization of tlie AVar Dcjtaitnient, 
by his negociations jis Secretary of State, by liis fre- 
quent minute, and accurate, and ])owerful ehicidations of 
all the iinancial, connnercial, manufacturing and agri- 
cultural o})erations of the country — in sh<»rt, by his 
whole course from the commencement to tlu' close of 
his career. It was the remarka])le characteristic of the 
Greek mind, now too little a})preciated, to be at once 
practical and speculative, as in fact it ever has been of 
all really great minds. In the palmiest days of Greece 
her Philosophers were Statesmen, her Poets and His- 
torians were Warrioi's. The Astronomer who tii-st })re- 
dicted an ecli})se made his fortune by dealing in olives. 
To a successful Usur})er we owe the collection of the 
scattered songs of Homer. The mere practitioner is 
necessarily a quack in medicine, a pettifogger in law, 
and a charlatan in i)olitics. 

The colloquial powers of Mr. Calhoun have been 
hitrhlv lauded. But this is a mistake. Strictly si)eak- 
ino: he had no uncommon endowment in that line. It 
is true that he entered readily and easily into any 
convei-sation, and there were few subjects on which he 
did not throw new light, or at lea.st dissi]>ate some of 
the darkness that might surround them. But he ex- 
hibited no sparkling wit, no keen retort, none of that 
liveliness of fancy which so delightfully season and 
refine familiar conversation. Nor wjus he anything of 
a raconteur. All these things he occasionally enjoyed 



68 ORATION ON THE LIFE, CIIARACTEE AND 

with much zest, but rarely attempted himself. The 
conversation in which he really shone was but a modi- 
fied species of Senatorial debate. And in that no one 
apj)roached to an equality with him. In the Senate, 
where time is given for preparation and the conflict of 
intellect is conducted for the most part like a cannon- 
ade by heavy dischai'ges at considerable intervals, his 
opponents might make a show of vigorous combat with 
him. But in the close encounter of informal colloquy, 
there ^vas no one who could stand before him. The 
astonishing rapidity of his intellectual operations en- 
abled him to anticipate every proposition before it was 
half stated, to resolve it into all its parts, and not only 
to answer his opponent without a moments hesitation, 
but to take up his whole train of argument, run through 
it in advance of him, and so turn all his points as to 
convince or at least to silence him. At these times 
there was a fascination about him which no one could 
resist. It was not merely his warmth, his earnestness, 
his deep sincerity that charmed, but his reasoning — 
commencing so far back, and disentangling the first 
elements, the facts and principles, — moved forward with 
such simplicity and ease ; such clearness and connec- 
tion : with a sweep so graceful, yet so broad and pow- 
erful that you felt as though you were listening rather 
to a narrative than to an argument. There were rarely 
any topes or figures, or learned illustrations, but your 
very passions were enlisted by the ardour and intense- 
ness of his logic, and you were carried unresistingly 
along, as well by the force of your imagination as by 
the conductions of your judgment. The power which 
Mr. Calhoun thus exercised was so transcendant that 



SEKVICKS OF .TOUV C. CALHOUN. 69 

could hv luivo seen ami cuiivei'sed with every iiidividu- 
fil in the Union, he would have reiijfned sn])r('Tne over 
puhlic opinion. 

The fame of Mr. Calhoun' -will rest chit-lly un his 
character as a Statesman. Posterity, with a knowledpfe 
of events yet concealed from us, will analyse it closely. 
It is believed it will stand the most rii^id sci-utiny. So 
many qualiticatii^ns art* necessary to the formation of 
Statesmen, and so rare a combination o\' all the highest 
moral and mental ([ualities is recpiisite to constitute one 
of the first order, that they are usually rated rather by 
degrees of ability, than by the ])(»culiarities of talent. 
Such peculiarities, however, do exist, and so color 
their current opinions, that they are in all countries 
classed, at least temporarily, accordini,' to the domestic 
parties whose views they fav(»r for the time. In this 
countrv, wliere everv thinir is so new and variable: 
where not only our political institutions are experimen- 
tal, but our civilization has not attained a j>crmanent 
standard, there is great difficulty in a]t])ropriating dis- 
tinctive names to our Statesmen — a diHiculty «'nhanced 
by the fact that nearly or quite all of our eminent men 
have, in the coui*se of their careers, radically c-hanged 
Bome of their ojjinions: a change which indeed few 
of the great Statesmen of any country, in the hist 
eighty eventful }ears, have escaped. 

Coming into the public c(»unciN at a })eriod when 
twenty yeai-s of successful experiment had, it w;ts 
thought, fully tested our Federal Constitution, and 
established the j)ermanency of the Federal (Jovern- 
ment — when a vigorous effort to convert it into a cen- 
tral despotism had been signally defeated, and all sec- 
tional jealousies and ap]»rehensions had been lulled. 



10 OEATION ON THE LIFE, CHAEACTER AND 

Mr. Calhoun devoted liimself wholly and enthusiasti- 
cally to the great purpose of developing all the mighty 
resources of his country, and raising her to the highest 
pitch of prosperity and grandeur. His views were 
large — far reaching — noble. And his measures were 
in full accordance with them. Whenever, in war or in 
peace, an exigency occurred, his active and inventive 
genius promptly suggested a provision for it, always 
ample, and usually the best that could be adopted. 
Whenever favouring circumstances invited a forward 
movement, or a wider exertion of energy, he was ever 
ready with plans thoroughly digested and fully adapt- 
ed to accomplish all the ends in view. While close in 
his calculations, and careful of details, there was noth- 
ing low or narrow in any thing he ever proposed. He 
had an ineffable scorn for whatever was mean or con- 
tracted in legislation; and having an abiding confi- 
dence, not only in truth and justice, but in the power 
of reason, and the capacity of the people to appreciate 
what was right and comprehend the arguments in 
favour of it, — he never for a moment yielded to the 
current jDopular opinion, when it diflered from his own. 
He expected to restrain it by his logic, and ultimately 
reverse it by the benefits his measures would confer. As 
a Progressive Statesman, leading ardently during the 
first part of his career the very van of Progress, Mr. 

Calhoun may be considered a perfect model 

When, however, a few years of peace had developed 
in this new and rapidly growing country, what it has 
taken thirty years to make manifest in older and more 
closely cemented social fabrics — that Governments and 
Constitutions are more severely tried by the conflicts of 
domestic than of foreign interests, and ambition ; and 



SERVICES OF .TOJTN C. CALTinrN. 71 

it became evident that uiir Government was to Ijc piT- 
verted and our Constitution set aside, to enable one 
section of this Confederacy to despoil another — thon 
Ml'. Calhoun became a Conservative Statesman. He 
saw that in common witli the foundei's of the U(^j)ul)- 
lic, he had been deceived in his belief that the Consti- 
tution had been consecrated l)y a quarter of a century 
of successful operation, and that all danger of a central 
despotism had passed by. He saw what many — in all 
countries — have been too slow in seeing, — that there 
is a Progres-s whioli. like "vaulting ambition, overleaps 
itself." He recoiled from the operation of machinery 
he had liimself aided to })ut in motion ; and he now 
ardently devoted all liis talents and all his energy to 
arrest the march of usurpation and corruption : and to 
preserve tlio liberties and institutions iidierite«l from 
our fathei's. 

But merely negative and stolid conservatism did not 
at all suit the genius of ]Mr. Calhoun, which was essen- 
tially active and ever looking forward t(^ the improve- 
ment of mankind. lie sought, therefore, earnestly, to 
discover the i)rinciples and theory of Movement that 
might be onward and unfailing — yet regular and safe. 
In accomplishing this task, he sounded anew the dei)tlis 
of human nature : he re-viewed the whole science of 
politics : he analysed the Constitution word by word — 
its letter and its spirit: and he studied thoroughly the 
workings of our Government. The result wa.s tliat he 
lifted himself above all parties, and became a Philoso- 
phical Statesman — the only true an<l real Statesman. 
And it was in the wide and exhaustless field now opened 
to him, that he gathered those immortal huirels, whose 



72 ORATION ON THE LIFE, CHARACTER AND 

verdure shall delight, whose blossoms shall refresh, 
whose fruit shall be the food of the latest posterity. 

The example of his noble efforts to reform the Gov- 
ernment and to restore the Constitution of his coun- 
try, — distinguished by the display of the vastest re- 
sources and the most masterly powers of intellect, — 
though like Agis, and Conon and the younger Brutus, 
he failed in his glorious designs — will live forever. But 
his speeches and writings will constitute a new epoch 
in the science of Politics. Our Federal Constitution, 
he often said, was in advance of the wisdom of those 
who framed it ; and he it was who first thoroughly ex- 
plored, comprehended, and exi:)ounded it. He found 
in it nearly all that was requisite to establish on the 
firmest foundations, a free and popular Government, 
which was his beau ideal of Government : and which, 
though it has had many fi'iends and many martyrs and 
has been illustrated by patriots and heroes, has scarcely 
before had a genuine Apostle. He laid down for the 
first time its true principles and marked out its true 
limits : and has shown how it might, and unless vigi- 
lantly watched would eventually depart from those 
principles and limits, and produce all those evils which 
have so long made it odious to the best and wisest 
men. He has shown on the other hand how capable 
it is of unlimited expansion, to meet all the exigencies 
and reap all the benefits of real progress — ^if its power 
is confided to the proper majorities and their suffrages 
collected in the proper manner : and how its harmony 
may be kept undisturbed and its duration made per- 
petual, by securing to the minorities the sacred and all- 
important right of self-protection. In short, he has so 



SERVICES OF .TOIIN C. CALHOUN. 73 

thoroiii^lily chu-itlatccl ull tin- i-htH-ks mid hahmct'.s of 
Free Constitutions — simple and confederated — that 
henceforth, in the long tide of time, no Uepublic will 
be erected or reformed on u durable foundation, witli- 
out a constant recurrence to the theories he has tliij- 
cussed, and the mcjusurcs he has proposed ; and a ])ro- 
found observance of the precepts he luus taught. 

I have endeavoured to ])oint out the most prominent 
events in the life of Mr. Calhoun: the parts he took 
in public allairs : the services he rendered his country: 
the policy and views by which he was at various peri- 
ods influenced. I have also endeavoured to pourtray 
the most striking' features of his moral and intellectual 
chai'acter ; and have l>riefly reviewed his Statesman- 
ship. My task is executed, however feebly and iin])er- 
fectly. It would be vain to attempt to fathom the 
Divine Will, and seek to learn why, in this most event- 
ful period of our history, <nir Great Leader has been 
snatched away, leaN-ing no one behind who can fdl his 
place. \\'hat w^e do know is, that high and sacred 
duties hav^e devolved on us; and imitating his illustri- 
ous exam{>le, we should go forward in the performance 
of them with "unshaken confidence in the Providence 
of God." 



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